From Newsday:
Originally Posted by Newsday
A United Airlines Boeing 737 returned to LaGuardia Airport minutes after takeoff Wednesday morning -- after the crew of another plane saw fluid leaking from the left engine.
Flight 1496 landed without incident and there were no reported injuries. It was not immediately clear how many passengers were on board.
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Pretty tame and more of a hassle than anything else. In the air the captain told everyone to be seated and that we needed to turn around but it not to worry, once we landed the captain explained that air traffic control reported that someone (apparently another aircraft) saw fluid coming out of the left wing during takeoff, and they couldn't be sure if it was water or some other fluid.
Landed normally and safely, taxi to gate. Initially told to stay on the aircraft, then told we had the option to leave, and then everybody had to get off. Fire trucks came up to the aircraft after we were deplaned but left shortly thereafter. The plane remained at gate for several hours; UA struggled to accommodate passengers on other flights (LGA terminal C does not have a big service desk post-security and the plane was mostly full). Would be curious to know if it actually was water or not, we never got an answer.
Plane was a Boeing 738 tail N24202.
