More than a dozen people were injured when a plane carrying 101 passengers and crew caught on fire on the runway of Fort Lauderdale’s Hollywood international airport on Thursday.
One person was seriously injured by burns that were not life-threatening and about a dozen other people were taken to the hospital for minor injuries including bumps, sprains and stress, said Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) identified the plane as a Boeing 767 operated by Dynamic Airline en route to Caracas, Venezuela. It was taxiing for departure around 12.45pm when the aircraft behind it on the runway reported that fuel was leaking, the FAA said.
“The left engine caught fire on departure,” said Alan Siegel in an interview on CBS News. The fire was quickly extinguished. Two local stations reported there were 101 people on board.
Miami’s ABC News affiliate WPLG aired a recording of an audio conversation with the pilot of a plane behind the Dynamic flight.
“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,” a voice says.
“Yes sir, we copy, we’ll probably need to go back to the ramp,” the Dynamic pilot replies in a calm voice.
Seconds later another agitated voice is heard yelling: “Engine’s on fire! Engine’s on fire!”
At that point it appears that the captain abandoned the effort to return to the terminal building and ordered the evacuation of the aircraft.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced it will be sending a four-person team to Fort Lauderdale to investigate the incident.
Jachles added that the airport had a “full complement” of rescue equipment and firefighting personnel. “They train for incidents just like this,” he said. “The goal is to minimise the risk, mitigate the hazard and take care of anybody that’s injured.”
Airport spokesman Greg Meyer told reporters that the airport was “basically shut down” because of the incident. It reopened several hours later.
Meyer said the passengers were taken from the plane on buses to a family assistance centre at Terminal 4 away from public view.
“Our biggest concern is the safety of the passengers. We want to make sure the people get off the aircraft safely and get away from the incident,” he said. “We train for this several times a year, we go through table-top exercises, we have real exercises, today happens to be the real thing.”
Meyer added that Dynamic had operated at the airport for about six months. “This is their first incident. There will be a full-scale investigation,” he said.
Passengers on another plane on the runway recorded the fire and posted video to Twitter showing plumes of thick black smoke coming from the plane.
Plane fire on the tarmac at #FLL Airport. This photo from #CNN affiliate @WPLGLocal10. pic.twitter.com/wXamHGit9e
— Jennifer Feldman (@jenniferfeldman) October 29, 2015
It began servicing Caracas in July, after several other major airlines ended or slashed service to Venezuela over the government’s refusal to pay an estimated $4 billion the carriers say they have trapped in the country.
For Venezuelans hoping to travel abroad, the options have been severely reduced to little-known carries such as Dynamic or domestic carriers, which due to the country’s economic crisis, have struggled to import replacement parts.
The company’s CEO, Paul Kraus, did not immediately respond to an email. A phone number listed on Dynamic’s website was answered by a contracted reservation company which said it had no available numbers for the airline.
The Associated Press contributed to this report