-- but its ride will be a quiet one.

The Pratt and Whitney PW 4000, which shut down during a flight from New York to Sao Paolo, Brazil on Tuesday, will be transported to United Airlines' maintenance operations centre in San Francisco.

The plane, which diverted to Bermuda with 111 passengers and crew on board, was due to fly to New York last night with a replacement engine.

After landing in Bermuda, we "found metal in one of the engine's filters,'' said Capt. Ed Soliday, United vice president of safety.

While the plane could still fly on one engine, the law requires that it land at the nearest airfield, Capt. Soliday said.

Experts will split the engine's casing and use fibreoptics in efforts to determine the cause.

Flight 987 was 300 nautical miles south of Bermuda when an indicator light went on in the plane's cockpit signalling the shutdown.