"I was panicking in my head, thinking about how I was maybe going to die."
That is what Naru Kurokawa thought as an engine failed in the Japan Airlines Boeing 777 flight over Japan he piloted on December 4.
Kurokawa has shared his story after seeing news reports of a very similar incident on the same type of aircraft in Colorado in the US last weekend.
"I thought I would go insane if I accepted the thought of death, so I focussed on taking videos of the situation," Kurokawa said.
The aircraft made an emergency landing at Okinawa Airport about 40 minutes after take-off.
On Saturday, a United Airlines Boeing 777 suffered an engine fire resulting in debris scattering over the city of Denver in an incident captured in a terrifying video.
On Monday, Boeing urged airlines to suspend the use of 777s that use the same Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines.
Japan's transport ministry also ordered Japan Airlines and ANA Airlines to suspend use of all 777s with that engine type while it considered whether to take additional steps.
"Watching videos of the United Airlines flight and engines in flames brought back the fear I experienced," said Kurokawa.
He had been filming out the window with his phone when he heard a loud noise followed by a massive shake.
An employee of the Okinawa Times newspaper Minako Kuroshima, who was also on that JAL plane, wrote afterwards that a pilot told passengers the plane was flying with only the right engine.
The JAL plane made an emergency landing. There were no injuries among the 11 crew or 178 passengers, local media reported.
Japan Transport Safety Board reported that two of the left engine's fan blades were found damaged, one from fatigue fracture.
Damage was also found on other parts of the plane including the engine cowling and fuselage.
