Stunning images of Air France A380 engine destroyed in flight

Stunning images of Air France A380 engine destroyed in flight

Commentary: Passengers on an Air France flight look out the window and see that one of the plane's engines has been mysteriously wrecked.

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.

When planes perform spectacularly, we celebrate them.

Sometimes, though, things go wrong.

On Saturday, for example, passengers on Air France flight 066 from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris to Los Angeles looked out of the window and saw something disturbing.

The Airbus A380's No. 4 engine -- that's the one on the outside of the right wing -- had endured an explosion. One passenger, Miguel Amador, speculated this had been caused by a bird strike.

But the front cowling and the fan disc had completely come off.

The plane was somewhere over Greenland at the time and was diverted to Goose Bay in Canada, where it landed safely. The A380 has four engines.

Air France didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The airline issued a statement on Sunday, however, in which it said: "The regularly trained pilots and cabin crew handled this serious incident perfectly."