Passengers injured after plane catches fire in Florida airport

A passenger plane carrying 101 people caught fire on the runway of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Florida, yesterday.

Passengers were evacuated using emergency slides, with one person seriously injured and 20 others taken to hospital for treatment.

The Dynamic Airways Boeing 767, which was bound for Caracas, Venezuela, caught fire after an air traffic controller told the pilot that a lot of fluid was leaking from his left engine, according to an audio recording published by WSVN.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"Hey, uh, Dynamic, out of your left engine it looks like it's leaking a lot of, I don't know if it's fuel or what," one voice says.

The pilot calmly replies: "Yes sir, we copy, we'll probably need to go back to the ramp."

But seconds later another voice is heard yelling: "Engine's on fire! Engine's on fire!"

Passengers reported chaos as people screamed and ran through the plane, although several people noted that the flight crew remained calm and acted quickly.

"I heard a loud bang. I turned around, saw the lights, saw the flames and I ran to the front of the aircraft," said one traveller, who claims it took around 30 seconds for the doors to open.

"It was pretty nerve-wracking, knowing that the door wasn't opening and that something was on fire," he added.

Broward County Sheriff's Office said emergency officials responded immediately and all of the passengers were removed from the aircraft within six minutes.

The airport was closed for more than three hours, with more than 200 flights disrupted and 43 cancelled. The US National Transport Safety Bureau is investigating the cause of the fire.

Photographs and videos from passengers who were inside the airport or on other planes showed dark smoke billowing from the side of the Boeing 767.

A total of 21 people were injured, most of whom were treated at a hospital and released, said Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue. One man was said to be seriously injured after falling and hitting his head while running on the tarmac.

Dynamic Airways said the flight had been "safely diverted" following an "engine problem".