Passengers evacuated after plane catches fire at South Korean airport
All 176 people on board made it out safely after the jet caught fire before take-off at the south-eastern Gimhae International Airport.
All 176 people on board were safely evacuated after a plane caught fire before take-off at an airport in South Korea, authorities said.
The Airbus plane, operated by South Korean airline Air Busan, was preparing to leave for Hong Kong when its rear parts caught fire at Gimhae International Airport in the south-east, the Transport Ministry said.
The plane’s 169 passengers, six crewmembers and one engineer were evacuated using an escape slide, the ministry said.
The National Fire Agency said in a release that three people suffered minor injuries during the evacuation.
The fire agency said the fire was completely put out at 11.31pm local time (2.31pm GMT), about one hour after it deployed firefighters and fire trucks at the scene.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known. The Transport Ministry said the plane is an A321 model.
Tuesday’s incident came a month after a Jeju Air passenger plane crashed at Muan International Airport in southern South Korea, killing all but two of the 181 people on board.
It was one of the deadliest disasters in South Korea’s aviation history.
The Boeing 737-800 skidded off the airport’s runaway on December 29 after its landing gear failed to deploy, slamming into a concrete structure and bursting into flames.
The flight was returning from Bangkok and all of the victims were South Koreans except for two Thai nationals.
The first report on the crash released Monday said authorities have confirmed traces of bird strikes in the plane’s engines, though officials have not determined the cause of the accident.
