Two investigators with “expertise in commercial aircraft and power plants” were expected to be in Denver Friday, to begin looking into what caused the engine of an American Airlines plane to catch fire shortly after a precautionary landing early Thursday evening at Denver International Airport, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Once at DIA, the investigators will begin “documenting and examining the aircraft, conducting witness and crew interviews, and obtaining other data that could contain information relevant to the investigation,” according to the statement.

Preliminary findings will be available within 30 days, but the NTSB’s final report, listing a “probable cause of the event along with any contributing factors,” isn’t expected for another 12 to 24 months, according to the agency.

Passengers originally heading from Colorado Springs to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport were safely deplaned from the Boeing 737-800 at DIA around 5:15 p.m. Thursday, and no serious injuries were reported, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t stressful moments for those on board, including Colorado Springs’ Hunter Hubbs, who was traveling with his girlfriend, 6-month-old son, mother and a family friend to a cousin’s weekend wedding in Texas.

After an unusually “big vibration” during takeoff from Colorado Springs Airport, he said passengers were just starting to settle in, for what they expected to be a roughly two-hour flight, when a voice came over the intercom.

“About 10 minutes, maybe less, into the flight, the pilot let us know that the vibration was the engine failing to turn on,” Hubbs said. “Due to that, we were being rerouted to Denver from Dallas.”

It wasn’t a smooth ride to DIA, he said, but when is it ever?

“It was pretty turbulent, but that’s what you expect between Colorado Springs and Denver,” he said.

The plane had landed and was taxiing to the gate when the FAA said the engine caught fire. Inside the cabin, passengers were still unaware, Hubbs said.

Then, suddenly, they were.

“As soon as the seat-belt sign came off and everyone started standing up, that’s when someone screamed, ‘Fire!’” Hubbs said. “No one was really panicking yet. But you could tell that people were starting to worry and wanting to get off.”

The palpable concern spiked when smoke began to fill the space. Hubbs said it didn’t reach a point where it was thick enough to obscure vision, or make him cough, but that others may have been closer to the source.

“Seeing the videos that people took, the smoke from the outside looks way crazier than how much was in the cabin by the time we got out,” he said.

After the first cries of “fire!” and “smoke!” — time that felt like minutes, but may have been seconds — the cabin door was opened, fresh air rushed in, and passengers began filing out.

“All the passengers were amazing,” Hubbs said. “No one was trying to gain advantage or push someone else out of the way. Everyone was assisting one another.”

“Honestly, that’s what I’m thankful for most. No one was panicking,” he added. “Once we started moving, everything went great.”

Hubbs, his girlfriend and son exited via an inflatable evacuation slide deployed in the right rear of the plane, he said. Others, including his mother and her friend, exited onto a wing, and had to await an assist to reach the ground.

“There’s really no stairs from the plane wing, so they had to stand on the wing. My mom was part of that group and said they waited for a luggage conveyor belt to slide down, basically,” Hubbs said.

Though he, too, heard the anecdotes, Hubbs couldn’t confirm reports that some passengers may have been injured jumping from the wing of the plane after evacuating the cabin.

Inside the terminal, a special section had been set aside, with paramedics at the ready, to assess and triage passengers.

Hubbs said he was feeling fine and eschewed the offered care, but that his girlfriend and son opted for follow-up care, and more vital readings, at the emergency room.

“She had to get an inhaler, but no serious damage was done, thankfully,” Hubbs said.

And his son weathered the unexpected turbulence like a trouper.

“They were actually really impressed with him. He was just a happy baby all night,” said Hubbs, now back in the Springs (via rental car) and, as of Friday afternoon, waiting for the airline to contact him about the family’s checked luggage, and desperately needed stroller/car seat.

American Airlines offered to book the family another flight to Texas, in time to make the wedding, but Hubbs said they declined.

“We’re sorry to miss it, but I just don’t want to take another flight after this, this weekend at the very least,” said Hubbs. “Maybe in half a year I’ll be on a plane, but feet on the ground sounds good for the foreseeable future.”

On average, between five and six American Airlines flights bound for Dallas-Fort Worth depart the Colorado Springs Airport each day, according to airport marketing and communications representative Aidan Ryan.

In the past two years, the airport has logged two fire incidents in commercial aircrafts, both of which were a “wheel fire at the gate,” and extinguished quickly, with all passengers and crew deplaning safely and uninjured into the terminal.

Neither incident required the deployment of the planes’ emergency slides.

“In at least the last 10 years, emergency slides have not been deployed on our airfield,” Ryan said.

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