An aeroplane was forced to make an emergency landing at Santiago International Airport after panels surrounding an engine snapped off during take-off.

The Sky Airlines flight from Santiago in Chile to Copiapo, which had 137 passengers on board, returned to the airport yesterday following the incident, which was caught on camera.

A passenger sat next to the wing filmed the hair-raising moment when the left engine's protective casing broke off with parts of it becoming detached as the plane began to climb.

Part of the casing began lifting up after the passenger, who was sat beside the wing, started filming

A few seconds later the protective casing starts to lift a lot higher as the plane builds speed for take-off

According to Chile's Tele13, as the aircraft took off for its one and a half hour journey, one part of the casing appeared to hang precariously.

After making the emergency landing, passengers on the jet were put onto another flight at Santiago International Airport to the city of Copiapo.

Pilot Patrick Smith said: 'A portion of the engine cowling became unlatched - because perhaps it was not latched properly to begin with, got caught in the windstream and was torn off.

'The cowling section itself is nothing immediately critical; it's just a cover.

'You can compare it, maybe, to the bonnet that covers the engine in your car.

'Damage to the engine wasn't the problem. The danger was in the piece striking some other portion of the airframe as it sheared away - namely the wings, the tail, or the aft stabilizers.

A un avión Sky, con destino a Copiapó, se le salió una pieza que cubre el motor al despegar http://t.co/Nms9tpfMXM pic.twitter.com/mXAAyuSWQZ — Informaciones Chile (@InformacionesCL) October 14, 2015

The blue casing, which surrounds the engine on the plane - which was carrying 137 passengers - then cracked

Seconds later, the casing rips off completely and flies backwards as the aircraft pulls up and starts rising

SHOCKING ENGINE INCIDENTS 2015 1: A typical United Airlines flight from Honolulu to San Francisco, on July 7 turned into a horrifying experience when the plane engine began to spark just an hour after take-off. 2: Passengers told of the moment the engine of a Southwest Airlines plane caught fire seconds before take-off in Chicago on July 8, forcing the jet to make an emergency landing. 3: A British Airways flight burst into flames on September 8 on a Vegas runway after the engine exploded. 4: A passenger captured video of the terrifying moment flames shot out of an American Airlines plane’s engine moments after take-off on August 7. 5: Pictures showed the dramatic moment a Ikar Airlines's engine exploded as it was taking off from an airport, leaving debris scattered across the runway on June 23. Advertisement

'An impact with the stabilizers, for example, could have been extremely hazardous.

'However, the slipstream lifted the piece well clear of these areas. From that point there was little or no danger.'

The airline recently launched a new policy for low-cost travel.

Eventually it aims to offer airline seats for the price of a bus ticket.

Sky Airline is the second largest airline in Chile operating international routes to Brazil, Peru, Argentina and Bolivia.

The incident follows the shocking moment last year that engine casing exploded on a Delta flight to the Dominican Republic and forced the passenger jet to return to Minneapolis Airport.

Dramatic pictures taken by a passenger showed the casing ripped back to reveal the inner workings of one of the engines of the Boeing 737.

After noticing vibrations from the engine about an hour into the flight, the crew made an emergency return to Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport.