Boeing 747 cargo plane makes emergency landing shortly after takeoff at Miami airport

MIAMI (AP) — A witness saw sparks shooting from a cargo plane as it made an emergency landing at Miami International Airport shortly after takeoff.

The aircraft landed safely Thursday night “after experiencing an engine malfunction soon after departure," a spokesperson for Atlas Air said in a statement Friday. “The crew followed all standard procedures and safely returned to MIA."

The airplane was “shooting sparks" as it flew overhead, said Melanie Adaros, who was out for a walk with her mother and was about to turn into her home, when she heard and saw an approaching plane.

“There’s always planes flying overhead, but they’re little planes,” she said. “But this didn’t sound like a little plane. It sounded very low, so I turned ... You always see a plane going up or going down. This one was just at a steady level and it was shooting sparks. It was very surreal.”