United Airlines flight evacuated before takeoff after engine issue
Passenger captures the moment an United Airlines plane gets filled with smoke after engine issue and the following evacuation on slides at Houston airport, Feb. 2, 2025. (Ashlyn Sharp)
(HOUSTON) — Passengers on a United Airlines flight from Houston to New York were evacuated before takeoff on Sunday due to engine issues, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
No injuries were reported, according to the Houston Fire Department, which was assisting at the scene.
The FAA said takeoff was “safely aborted” due to a “reported engine issue.”
“Passengers deplaned on the runway and were bused to the terminal,” the FAA said in a statement.
United Airlines confirmed the incident, saying passengers evacuated the aircraft “via a combination of slides and stairs.”
In one video taken by a passenger, smoke could be seen coming out of the plane.
In another video, passengers were seen deplaning via the aircraft’s evacuation slide.
One passenger, Kelcie Davis, called it a “terrifying experience” in a post she shared on TikTok.
“Engine blew out right as our wheels were leaving the ground,” Davis said. “Plane lost control on the runway for a few seconds, but thank god our pilot was able to get the plane back under control. Only one slide was working for the entire plane to evacuate.”
ABC News’ Ayesha Ali and Camilla Alcini contributed to this report.
Andrew Woodley/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — Lisa Findley, the Missouri woman accused of attempting to illegally put Elvis Presley’s Graceland estate up for auction, could face a federal criminal trial in Tennessee in three months.
During a hearing in federal court in Memphis Wednesday morning that lasted less than 15 minutes, Senior District Judge John T. Fowlkes Jr. scheduled a trial for Wednesday, April 16, at 9:30 a.m.
Public defender Tyrone Paylor and federal prosecutors agreed to the proposed trial date. March 21 is now the deadline for motions.
A prosecutor told Fowlkes that much of the discovery process has been completed and that many of Findley’s phone calls while in custody have been reviewed.
The prosecutor also mentioned an attempt by investigators to put shredded pieces of paper back together along with an unsuccessful attempt to access smartwatch data, but did not go into detail.
Paylor and members of the prosecution team declined to comment to reporters after court.
Findley, who is accused of mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, appeared in the courtroom wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and coat.
She nodded when asked by Fowlkes if she understood that a trial date had been set and turned away from members of the press until the end, when she turned to see the hearing’s attendees walking out of the room.
As part of the alleged scheme, Findley is accused of forging the signatures of Elvis Presley’s late daughter Lisa Marie and Florida notary Kimberly Philbrick in order to claim that Lisa Marie did not pay back a loan from a purported company called Naussany Investments that listed Graceland as collateral.
Philbrick spoke exclusively to ABC News, telling “Good Morning America” in August and “IMPACT x Nightline” in October that she never notarized anything for Lisa Marie Presley and has no idea how her name got tied into Findley’s alleged scheme.
(LOS ANGELES) — The Los Angeles wildfires have destroyed thousands of structures since Jan. 7. In Altadena, north of Pasadena, the Eaton Fire has damaged or destroyed 7,000 structures.
One of the structures destroyed by the fire was the home Erion and Stephan Taylor lived in with their three children. They say they only had 20 minutes to evacuate on Jan. 7.
“My heart dropped, I saw the flames, and I said ‘Honey, come here for a second’ and he looked out the door and his whole demeanor changed,” Erion Taylor told ABC News.
The Taylors quickly packed their most precious items — wedding photos, loved ones’ ashes, stuffed animals and soccer cleats — into the car. They made their escape to Stephan’s mother’s home — Peggy Taylor lives a 7-minute drive down the hill.
However, the flames quickly threatened her home as well and the family fled. Since then, they have been living in a hotel room.
“The kids need a yard. They need a familiar space,” Erion said. “They need a kitchen table or a room to go to and shut the door if they want to be by themselves for a little bit.”
Erion said they’re hurt over what they lost, but her focus remains on what they still have — each other.
“I don’t care about things at all. Everything can be replaced,” she said. “There’s things I wish I had. I genuinely have everything I need right here. I have everything I need right here.”
When the Taylors were able to return to their Altadena neighborhood, they found their house in ruins. It’s a situation many across the area are facing, leaving families with an uncertain future.
Black families began moving to the area in the ’30s, during the Great Migration, and Altadena became a multicultural haven in the ’60s. This was a result of Black people being able to get mortgages and Altadena being free of “redlining” — a practice that saw federally insured mortgages, loans and private residential insurance being withheld from non-white homeowners.
Peggy Taylor, known as Ms. Peggy, moved to the area when she was 17. The home she bought in the ’60s has housed both her boys and their families at some point or another, making it a haven for their family. Miraculously, that house was spared by the fire.
“To see it standing and there’s no additional wind damage, doesn’t look like it’s been burglarized, makes me feel a lot better,” Ms. Peggy told ABC News.
Officials have been opening up areas of the evacuation zone, allowing people whose homes are still standing to return. One of those areas includes Ms. Peggy’s home, so the family may be able to relocate there soon.
People are already banding together to help rebuild what’s been lost in Altadena — an effort that’s giving the Taylors hope.
“We create, not destroy, and we are going to create our neighborhoods,” Erion said. “And we’re standing in front of a sign that says ‘Altadena is not for sale,’ because every single person here wants to make sure that the people are taken care of.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Internal Revenue Service on Thursday began laying off more than 6,000 new and newly promoted employees across the country, sources familiar with the planning told ABC News, as part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to shrink the federal workforce that could have potential consequences for the current tax filing season.
The layoffs, impacting roughly 6%-7% of the agency’s 100,000-person workforce, began midday Thursday primarily outside the Washington, D.C., area, with thousands of employees facing layoffs at offices in Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Tennessee, New York, and beyond, sources told ABC News.
As of Thursday morning, over 500 terminations were expected in Texas; over 600 in New York; over 400 in Georgia; and over 300 in each Florida, Tennessee, and Philadelphia, one source said.
Layoffs could continue into Friday at some IRS offices around the country if weather conditions prevent managers and employees from getting to work, according to an email sent to managers of probationary employees and obtained by ABC News.
The layoffs arrive in the middle of tax season as millions of Americans are filing their returns and hoping for timely refunds — but the exact impact on filing season is not yet clear.
Teams within the IRS being impacted by the layoffs include members of the small business/self-employed unit and clerks in various units, sources told ABC News.
Also impacted are members of the appeals team, whose role is to “resolve disputes, without litigation” with taxpayers, according to the IRS website, as well as employees with the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent organization within the IRS that helps to “protect taxpayer rights” and advocate for taxpayers who have issues with the IRS or are experiencing financial hardship.
Ahead of the layoffs, the IRS combed through an initial list of approximately 15,000 probationary employees to try to ensure that no one being laid off this week plays a “direct” role in filing season, sources said. But there are still widespread concerns within the IRS that the firings could ultimately cause delays:
One former IRS commissioner told ABC News it’s “unrealistic” to think firings could occur during filing season and that the process would still run entirely smoothly.
“The bottom line: Forever, it has been an absolute rule of thumb that you keep things stable during filing season. Because it’s delicate,” the former commissioner said. “And the idea that nearly 10% of the entire IRS workforce is being laid off right in the middle of filing season is extremely risky.”
The former commissioner said filing season is like an assembly line with incoming and outgoing products: there are incoming tax forms and correspondence, and outgoing credits, refunds, and balance-due notices.
“There are layers of indirect support that go into that — that could be technology, other types of logistics, supply chains. If you lose that capacity, it will diminish productivity,” the former commissioner said. “Filing season is all hands on deck. Something could break down. You could need to surge resources to one area of service. Things don’t always go as planned at the assembly line.”
“We can expect Americans to experience a return to slower refunds, to longer waits on hold, to dropped calls,” Vanessa Williamson, senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, said on a call with reporters Thursday. “It’s going to be a real impact on customer service right as taxes are due this year.”
One probationary worker expecting to be fired told ABC News that “termination of probationary employees could prolong audits.”
Another agency official said morale at the IRS is “low” and that they expected remaining workers to “protest internally in ways that could impact filing season.”
On Thursday morning, a union representing IRS employees distributed a letter to members with instructions on what to do if they receive a termination letter.
“Print out everything in your Employee Personnel File that verifies when you started your job,” the email said. “Print last three paystubs and W-2. Print your annual appraisal. Keep your printed copies at home.”
An IRS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Sources told ABC News that they expect further layoffs after tax season, and senior Trump administration officials have said that Trump wants to dismantle the tax-collecting agency entirely, which would require congressional approval.
“His goal is to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and let all the outsiders pay,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Fox News Wednesday night, referencing Trump’s proposal to create an “External Revenue Agency” to collect tariffs on foreign imports.
Experts say that abolishing the IRS would be extraordinarily difficult, and that it’s the sole government agency that collects the taxpayer money Trump is using to pay for his priorities, including border enforcement.
The IRS also would have to oversee any repayments to taxpayers envisioned by Trump and DOGE head Elon Musk, who recently floated the idea that Americans should receive a percentage of savings from the widespread government cuts.
“I love it. A 20% dividend, so to speak, for the money that we’re saving by going after the waste, fraud and abuse and all of the other things that are happening,” Trump said this week. “I think it’s a great idea.”
The cuts come two years after the IRS received tens of billions of dollars in funding from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which the agency said helped it hire more customer service representatives — thereby cutting in half the average time needed to process taxpayer correspondence from 7 months to 3.5 months.
At the end of fiscal year 2024, the IRS employed a total of 100,433 people — including accountants, managers, lawyers and other staff — which was up from about 90,000 the year before.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty and Elizabeth Schulze contributed to this report.
