THE FRIENDLY SKIES — An Air France flight en route from Paris to Los Angeles was forced to make a slight detour when one of its engines fell apart over the Atlantic.

One of the four engines on the Airbus A380 flight AF66 failed as the aircraft was west of Greenland on Saturday, the BBC reported.

The plane was carrying 496 passengers and 24 crew at the time of the incident, an Air France spokesperson told AFP, according to BBC.

One of the passengers, David Rehmar, a former plane mechanic, said he thought it was probably a fan failure.

Rehmar said there was a sudden movement followed by a loud noise, which caused a lot of people on the plane to freak out.

Pilots quickly shut the failed engine down and were able to stabilize the aircraft within 30 seconds.

The Air France flight flew for about an hour on three engines before arriving at Goose Bay Airport in eastern Canada.

Two 777s were eventually sent from Montreal to pick up the passengers and take them the rest of the way to L.A.

The cause of the engine failure is still unknown and currently being investigated.