DENVER — (AP) — A fire on an American Airlines plane after it diverted mid-flight and landed at Denver International Airport sent passengers fleeing onto a wing in a fraught evacuation amid billowing clouds of smoke. Airport officials said 12 people were taken to hospitals with minor injuries.
The country has seen a recent spate of aviation disasters and close calls stoking fears about air travel, though flying remains a very safe mode of transport. Recent on-the-ground incidents have included a plane that crashed and flipped over upon landing in Toronto and a Japan Airlines plane that clipped a parked Delta plane while it was taxiing at the Seattle airport.
In this latest incident, Flight 1006 was headed from the Colorado Springs Airport to Dallas Fort Worth on Thursday, but diverted to Denver and landed safely around 5:15 p.m. after the crew reported engine vibrations, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. While taxiing to the gate, an engine on the Boeing 737-800 caught fire, the FAA added.
Photos and videos posted by news outlets showed passengers exiting the plane onto its left wing as an engine on the right wing burned and black smoke surrounded the aircraft. They lined up and got to the ground using slides and ladders brought over by groundcrews, according to the FAA, videos and passenger interviews.
American said in a statement that the flight experienced an engine-related issue after taxiing to the gate. There was no immediate clarification on exactly when the plane caught fire.
All 172 passengers and six crew members were safely evacuated from the plane, authorities and airport officials said. American Airlines referred questions about the 12 people taken to hospitals to local officials. Ten people were taken to the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora but spokesperson Kelli Christensen said she did not have an update on how many were there Friday.
A replacement plane and crew took passengers to Dallas-Fort Worth, the airline said. The flight landed Friday around 5 a.m. local time, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.
Engine fires are very rare with crews trained to deal with them, according to aviation expert Steven Wallace. They typically are not catastrophic even if they occur in the air since planes can fly with a single engine, he said.
“A pilot going to work for an airline today could likely fly for 30 years and never experience an engine failure," said Wallace, a former director of the FAA’s accident investigations office.
Former National Transportation Safety Board Chairman James Hall said the reported engine vibrations were unusual but a slew of problems could have caused them and a fire, making it difficult to speculate on.
As for the recent spate of aviation incidents, “given the past history, you can classify it as unusual,” said Hall, but “I don’t know if you have enough information to draw any conclusions.”
After hearing midflight that something was wrong with the engine and they'd have to land, passenger Daniel Friedman said in an interview with a WRAL-TV reporter at the Denver airport that he started thinking about who he would call and in what order and writing a eulogy.
“Really I just wanted to make sure we got here safe and didn’t know if it was going to happen or not,” Friendman said.
When the plane caught fire after landing, flames could be seen right outside the window and people pushed and shoved to get off the plane, Friedman said. Once emergency doors opened, people hopped onto the wing and then onto ladders to get off the plane, he said. He said he scratched his leg jumping off the wing onto a ladder. Once on the ground, Friedman wanted to call friends and family to tell them he loved them.
Friedman said he has concerns that he’s been hearing of so many aviation incidents lately.
“Hopefully this never happens to me or anybody else again because that's not a good day,” he said. “I don’t wish that upon anybody.”
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board have said they will investigate.
“We thank our crew members, DEN team and first responders for their quick and decisive action with the safety of everyone on board and on the ground as the priority,” American Airlines said.
Colorado resident Ian Paisley was at the airport Friday to fly to Hawaii with his family and said they fly about three or four times a year. He heard about Thursday’s fire but didn’t think that it would change his family’s plans.
“We can have confidence that even though these are terrible things that happen and very frightening for people, that for most of us it’s not going to be something that affects our lives and we can have confidence that we can still go up in the air and be safe,” he said.
___ Brumfield reported from Washington.
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