A Hawaiian Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Honolulu was delayed for more than 16 hours this weekend after employees found damage to a fan blade, a spokeswoman for the airline said today.

Hawaiian flight 7 from McCarran International Airport arrived at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport shortly after 5 a.m. Saturday — 16 hours and 19 minutes late, according to flightaware.com.

Ann Botticelli, spokeswoman for Hawaiian, said a crew was doing a detailed visual inspection of the Airbus A330-220, as is done before every flight, when they found damage to a fan blade, likely caused by debris on the runway.

Because safety is the priority, Hawaiian opted to have the blade replaced, but the part had to be flown in to Las Vegas, resulting in the extended delay, she said.

The incident brings to mind the broken fan blade that caused the death of a woman on a Southwest Airlines flight in April. Jennifer Riordan was killed when an engine fan blade snapped on a Boeing 737, sending metal fragments into the side of the plane and shattering her window. Riordan was partially sucked out of the plane and died of blunt impact trauma.

Honolulu Star-Advertiser sports reporter Dave Reardon was on the Hawaiian Airlines flight from Las Vegas and said passengers arrived at the airport Friday morning for the scheduled 9:25 a.m. departure, but were kept at the airport gate for several hours while the crew investigated a mechanical problem.

Eventually, the airline shuttled the passengers to a hotel and gave them a room and meal vouchers before returning them to the airport on Saturday for a 2 a.m. departure.

“They were apologizing profusely,” he said. “They did the best they could under a trying situation.”

After the flight landed in Honolulu, Hawaiian welcomed the deplaning passengers with lei.