“Nerve-wrecking, terrifying and horrific.”

That is how one witness described her experience getting off an American Airlines flight that caught fire after it was forced to make an emergency landing in Colorado.

Some of the 172 passengers travelling on the flight bound for Dallas were seen standing on the plane’s wing after it touched down in Denver, with large plumes of smoke encircling around them.

Everyone on board, including six crew members, made it out of the plane alive, with 12 passengers treated at hospital for minor injuries, according to airport officials.

One of those passengers, Michele Woods, told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, how everything about the flight seemed normal at take off.

It was not until they were cruising in the air that she noticed a loud noise reverberating from one of the plane’s engines.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) later confirmed the plane diverted to Denver at around 17:15 local time (23:15 GMT) after the crew reported “engine vibrations”.

But even when the plane landed, passengers soon realised they were still far from safety.

“Everything was fine but then there was smoke filling the cabin,” said Ms Woods, who was returning home after attending a trade show in Colorado.

Seated at the front of the plane, she explained how she was one of the few in a position where they were able to walk off the plane once it had touched down.

Other passengers, as now viral images of huddled people standing on the wing of a smoking plane show, did not have as straightforward an escape.

Ingrid Hibbit, who was travelling on flight 1006 with her husband and daughter, was one of the unfortunate few forced out onto the wing before she could reconnect with her family on the ground.

“[You could see] flames from the window and the windows [were] kind of melting,” Ms Hibbit told CBS. Dismounting from the plane proved to be a difficult task – not helped, she pointed out, by being dressed in Birkenstock sandals.

“I was like shaking, I was not stable,” she admitted.

Adding to her already fever-pitch anxieties was the fact neither she, nor any member of her family, were seated in the same section of the plane. They could communicate only through text messages.

“I was hoping everything was okay, but we really didn’t know for sure,” she said, adding that despite the ordeal lasting only 10 minutes, “it was a very long 10 minutes”.

“It was a really great feeling to see that everyone was okay.”

She and her family finally touched down at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on Friday morning, along with several of the other passengers.

Relief, she said, had swept through the group, particularly after an “exhausting” episode that had overshadowed the start of their family holiday.

“If this would’ve happened in the air, I don’t think we would be telling this story at all, because who knows what that would’ve been like,” she said. “I’m grateful that everyone survived.”