The engine of a passenger plane catches fire on Thursday as he prepared to take off, and more than 100 passengers were quickly evacuated by emergency slides. One person was seriously injured, officials said, reports Associated Press.
An air traffic controller reported that the plane was leaking fuel before it caught fire. He told the pilot that "plenty of fluids" was going out of its left engine, and then with a sense of urgency he indicated that the engine was on fire and was going to send firefighters, according to an audio recording broadcast by WSVN.
In video images it was possible to see dozens of passengers sliding down the slides Dynamic Airways plane bound for Caracas, Venezuela. Some ran to the terminal of the Fort Lauderdale / Hollywood International Airport away from the aircraft, as firefighters rushed to put out the flames.
Andres Gallegos said he was one of the first passengers to use slides to evacuate.
"I heard a loud explosion. Turn, I saw the lights, I saw the flames and ran to the front of the aircraft, "Gallegos, who said that the aircraft doors took about 30 seconds to open said. "It was quite distressing to know that the door was not opening and something was on fire."
Other passengers reported a chaotic situation where people screamed, cried and ran down the aircraft. Several people said that the crew remained calm and acted quickly.
"At that time, the only thing he thought was trying to get off the plane," said passenger Daniela Magro.
A total of 21 people were injured, most of whom were treated at a hospital and discharged, the spokesman for the Broward County Fire Mike Jachles said. A male passenger who fell and hit his head as he ran down the track I was seriously injured and remained hospitalized Thursday night, Jachles said.
Once inside the airport, passengers were frustrated, saying that they had put a room for over an hour and had not heard from the airline.
Don Dodson, director of operations Dynamic Airways, said the company established a center for handling the crisis, sent additional representatives of the airline to assist passengers and arranged another flight to take them to their destination.
Dynamic is an airline than five years old which links Fort Lauderdale, New York, Venezuela and Guyana. 767. operates seven aircraft airline officials said they had 110 people on board, including passengers and crew.
The passengers on another plane on the runway recorded the fire and spread on Twitter jacks, which can be seen thick columns of smoke rising from the ship.
The airport briefly closed after the fire. The southern runway reopened on Thursday afternoon, but the north runway was closed, generating delays.
By JOSH Replogle Associated Press
Frieda Frisaro, Kelli Kennedy and Curt Anderson contributed to this report in Miami.