The American Airlines plane detoured along the way and escaped passengers to their wings as clouds of smoke swirled after landing at Denver International Airport. Airport officials said 12 people were taken to hospitals where they had minor injuries.
The country has seen recent aviation disasters and close calls terrify about air travel, but flight remains in a very safe mode of transport. Recent ground incidents include a plane that crashed and turned over when it landed in Toronto, and a Japan Airlines plane that cut out a delta plane that was parked while taxiing at Seattle Airport.
In this latest incident, Flight 1006 headed from Colorado Springs Airport to Dallas, Fort Worth on Thursday, but detoured to Denver and landed safely around 5:15pm after crews reported engine vibrations. The Boeing 737-800 engine started a fire while taxiing the gate, the FAA added.
Photos and videos posted by the news outlet showed passengers leaving the plane on its left wing as the engine surrounds the aircraft. According to FAA, video and passenger interviews, they were caught in the ground side by side and reached the ground.
The American said in a statement that the flight experienced engine-related issues after directing it to the gate. There was no exact clarification when the plane was lit.
All 172 passengers and six crew members were safely evacuated from the plane, authorities said. American Airlines introduced questions about 12 people taken to hospital by local officials. Ten people were taken to University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, but spokesman Kelly Christensen said there was no update on how many people were on Friday.
The exchange and crew took passengers to Dallas-Fort Worth, the airline said. According to Flight Tracking website FlightAware, the flight landed around 5am local time.
How common is airplane fire?
Engine fires are extremely rare, according to aviation expert Stephen Wallace. Airplanes can fly with a single engine, so they are not usually catastrophic when they occur in the air, he said.
“A pilot working for an airline today could probably fly for 30 years and not experience an engine failure,” said Wallace, former director of the FAA’s Accident Investigation Bureau.
Hani Mahmassani, a professor of transportation and engineering at Northwestern University, is addressing concerns about flying following a series of aviation disasters across the country.
Former National Transportation Safety Board Chairman James Hall said that reported engine vibrations are unusual, but many issues have caused fires with them, making it difficult to speculate.
Regarding recent aviation incidents, “If we consider past history, we can classify it as unusual,” Hall said, but “I don’t know if there’s enough information to draw a conclusion.”
Passenger accounts about what happened
After hearing about mid-flight that something was wrong with the engine and they had to land, passenger Daniel Friedman said in an interview with WRAL-TV reporters at Denver Airport that he began to think about who he was calling and what order he was writing and writing tributes.
“I really wanted to be safe here and make sure I didn’t know if that would happen,” my friend said.
When the plane fired after it landed, flames were visible just outside the window, and people pushed and pushed them to get off the plane, Friedman said. When the emergency doors opened, people jumped on their wings and jumped onto the ladder to get off the plane, he said. He said he jumped from the wings to the ladder and scratched his leg. Once on the ground, Friedman wanted to call friends and family and tell them he loved them.
Friedman said he has concerns that he has heard so many aviation incidents recently.
“Hopefully this will never happen to me or anyone else, so it’s not a good day,” he said. “I don’t want that from anyone.”
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board say they will investigate.
“We don’t want to see people lose their lives because we have a failed air traffic control system,” the Transport Secretary said Thursday he visited the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City.
“We would like to thank our crew, our Den team and our first responders for their quick and decisive action, as a priority, to ensure the safety of everyone on board,” American Airlines said.
Colorado resident Ian Paisley was at the airport on Friday, and said he flew to Hawaii with his family, about three or four times a year. He heard about the fire on Thursday, but didn’t think it would change his family’s plans.
“We can be confident that these are horrible things that happen and very scary to people, but for most of us, they don’t affect our lives and we can still be confident that we can still go up into the air and be safe,” he said.
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