A Boeing 747, which was operated by the German carrier Lufthansa, had to turn back during the middle of its flight due to an oil leak. The plane, which was on its way to New York, was leaking oil out of one of its four engines, according to the pilot report.

The airline went on to report that the plane was carrying 334 passengers from Frankfurt to New York City. The pilot noticed the engine leak when the plane was over Greenland and chose to turn around. However, reports say that the plane could have made it all the way to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport on just three of the engines.

It was reported that when the plane turned around over Greenland, the pilots voice sounded a bit tense. Lufthansa did say that there was an oil leak on the flight, but the passenger and crew was in no danger at all.

Ann Curry, an NBC television reporter, was aboard and provided public “tweets” — brief, instant Internet updates via Twitter — on the plane’s turnaround after it returned to Frankfurt International Airport. The plane finally made it back to Frankfurt around 5pm. It was not until Saturday night that the passengers where able to make their way to New York.

These are the kinds of problems that the airline industry does not need right now. Due to the fact that the economy is down, the airlines have already been having trouble getting people to fly, turnarounds like these do not look good.