caught fire on Tuesday as it was preparing to take
off from Las Vegas, prompting the crew to abort
takeoff and evacuate terrified passengers.
"There were 159 passengers and 13 crew on the
flight," McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas
said.
It added that seven people on board were treated
for minor injuries.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the fire
broke out in the left engine of the 257-seat Boeing
777 shortly after 4:00 pm (2300 GMT) and the crew
immediately aborted takeoff and ordered an
evacuation.
"Passengers deplaned on the runway using
emergency slides and (were) bused to the
terminal," FAA spokesman Ian Gregor told AFP.
He said a probe was underway to determine the
cause.
An AFP correspondent at the airport said the blaze
was quickly put out by some 50 firefighters who
rushed to the site within minutes along with other
emergency vehicles.
Passengers described scenes of panic on the plane
with one witness saying there was "a lot of
screaming" as fumes filled the cabin and the crew
deployed the emergency slides.
Some of the passengers posted dramatic images
and videos that showed plumes of smoke and
flames engulfing the aircraft.
"Just got evacuated from our flight#BA2276 plane
caught fire somehow omg," passenger Dominic
Worthington said on Twitter.
- 'A lot of panic' -
Jacob Steinberg, a reporter for Britain's daily The
Guardian, said on his Twitter account that he was
asleep on the plane when it came to a "crashing
halt" on the runway.
"Initially told to stay seated, then shout of
evacuate," he said, adding that the flames had
apparently melted some of the jet's windows.
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"They opened the back door and slide went down
and smoke started coming in plane, followed by
mad dash to front. A lot of panic," he said.
Steinberg said the pilot later joined the passengers
inside the airport terminal and told them the fire
was caused by a "catastrophic failure of the engine."
"The pilot looked pretty shook up to be honest," he
said. "Has been flying for years, don't think he had
ever seen anything like that."
Paul Berberian, a passenger aboard another plane
that was on the tarmac at the time of the incident,
described watching in disbelief as the British
Airways plane caught fire and smoke billowed from
the fuselage.
A video shot by Berberian and aired on CNN shows
the stricken plane's passengers using evacuation
slides and running away on the tarmac as
emergency vehicles rush to the site to douse the
flames.
"We were all glued to the side of the plane watching
this unfold," he said of fellow passengers on his
flight.
- 'Gathering more information' -
McCarran Airport said traffic on runway number
three, where the incident took place, had been
suspended but flights were operating normally
from the three other runways.
Passengers from the stricken plane were taken to a
hotel near the Las Vegas strip for the night while
awaiting another flight to their destination.
"We're aware of the incident at McCarran Airport in
Las Vegas," Boeing said in a statement. "Our teams
are currently gathering more information."
British Airways had no immediate comment other
than to say that it was looking after the passengers
affected.
In 2014, a British Airways plane heading to Lyon,
France, was forced to turn back to London's
Heathrow Airport after a witness saw flames
"spitting" out of the engine on takeoff.
Richard Aboulafia, an aviation expert at Teal Group,
said he did not believe Tuesday's fire was linked to
any flaws with the Boeing 777.
"The 777 remains one of the safest forms of
transport ever invented," he told AFP. "While we
don't know about this incident, there have been no
significant 777 crashes or fires that resulted from
flaws with the aircraft."
- AFP
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