HILO, Hawai'i — For the second time in two months, a Hawaiian Airlines flight from the Big Island to Honolulu had to turn back after one of its engines failed, the Federal Aviation Administration has confirmed.

There were no injuries, and the flight on Monday returned to Kona safely, but not before the engine went out with a loud bang that left some passengers badly shaken, according to people aboard.

Hawaiian is investigating the cause of the engine failure, said Mike Fergus, spokesman for the FAA's Northwest Mountain Region.

It was the third engine failure since the Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 717 interisland fleet was put into service more than seven years ago.

Hawaiian Airlines spokesman Keoni Wagner said the problem Monday was caused by the failure of a turbine blade — the same problem that forced a Hawaiian flight to return to Hilo on Nov. 30 after an engine failed.

Turbine-blade failures "do happen from time to time. It's just part of our business," Wagner said. "I'd say it is a statistically rare event for that to happen."

Wagner said the first engine failure, in 2001, was caused by a bearing problem that made the engine overheat, and was not related to a turbine-blade failure.

In the incident on Monday, the flight was about 10 minutes into the trip from Kona to Honolulu when the engine failed and the crew turned the plane around, he said.

All of the passengers were accommodated on the next flight, Wagner said.

One of the passengers was Peter Shack, a lawyer from Davis, Calif., who had been visiting family on the Big Island. He said the plane was climbing above the ocean just after takeoff when there was a loud bang, and the plane "kind of lurched a little bit."

The aircraft leveled off immediately, and the captain explained one engine had failed. The landing was normal, but emergency equipment was mobilized at the airport, he said.

"The people behind us were hysterical, and people were praying. I guess it was the scene that you would expect, but everything seemed under control," Shack said.

Wagner said it took a couple of days to have a new engine shipped to Kona, and the company was replacing the engine yesterday to put the plane back in service by today.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.