A Dynamic Airways jetliner caught fire when it was preparing to take off from the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Florida.
Bound for the capital city of Venezuela, Caracas, the Boeing 727 carried 101 passengers who had to be immediately evacuated using the inflatable emergency slides.
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A pilot of another plane on the runway noticed fuel leakage and reported it to the air-traffic controllers at around 12.30pm local time on Thursday.
The evacuation was carried out soon after the air-traffic controllers cautioned the pilot of the Dynamic Airways. Aircraft Rescue Firefighters came to the rescue of the flaming aircraft.
The Fort Lauderdale airport said in a statement: "At approximately 12:30pm, Dynamic Airways Flight 405 experienced an engine fire while taxing to the runway for departure.
"Aircraft Rescue Firefighters extinguished the fire quickly.
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By GlobalData"Passengers evacuated from the aircraft using the emergency slides. There were 16 injuries."
According to reports, one suffered serious but not life-threatening burns whereas others were taken to the hospital for minor injuries.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) former crash investigator Greg Feith told Reuters: "Once the aircraft is airborne, it becomes a flying blowtorch. The fire intensifies and you don’t know what system or structure it’s going to burn through."
Had Dynamic Airways Flight 405 taken off with a fuel leakage it would have been calamitous, he added.
The airport was closed resulting in the delay of outbound flights while the inbound traffic was diverted.
After a few hours, the south runway was made accessible whereas the north runway, the hub of the incident, remained closed.
The NTSB will investigate as to why there was a leakage even after a preflight inspection.
In September, a British Airways flight, Boeing 777, with 159 passengers on board, burst into flames on the runway of McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.
One of the engines of the aircraft caught fire injuring 13 passengers.
Image: An aerial view of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Photo: courtesy of Ziggymarley01.
