Passengers evacuated from plane onto Denver runway after landing gear issue sparked fire and left one injured
After the Boeing 737 MAX 8 experienced a 'maintenance issue' involving an aircraft tire prior to takeoff, emergency personnel at the airport and the Denver Fire Department responded to the issue and those on board were evacuated on the runway, according to American Airlines and Denver International Airport.
The evacuation is the latest in a string of alarming aviation incidents at Denver International Airport – the sixth-busiest airport in the world.
In March, dozens of passengers were forced to stand on the wing of an American Airlines plane as they evacuated the aircraft after one of its engines caught fire.
A month later, a United Airlines plane hit an animal on takeoff and shot out fire.
On Saturday, passengers on the plane, which was departing to Miami International Airport with 173 passengers and six crew members, panicked when they heard a loud bang and saw flames before being evacuated on a slide attached to the plane.
The combination of blown tires and the deceleration of the plane during braking resulted in a brake fire that was extinguished by the Denver Fire Department, according to American Airlines.
'All customers and crew deplaned safely, and the aircraft was taken out of service to be inspected by our maintenance team. We thank our team members for their professionalism and apologise to our customers for their experience,' the airline said.
Five people were evaluated at the scene, and another person was evaluated at a gate and taken to the hospital with a minor injury, according to the airport and airline.
The plane had been scheduled to depart from the gate at 1:12pm local time, according to FlightAware, and the incident occurred around 2:45pm, the FAA said.
FlightAware data shows 240 flights out of Denver International Airport were delayed as of Saturday evening.
Customers will depart to Miami on a replacement plane later today, according to the airline. The FAA is investigating the incident.
The evacuation comes a day after a harrowing moment for passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight.
A privately owned Hawker Hunter fighter jet crossed less than two miles in front of a Boeing 737 plane within a few hundred feet of its altitude, according to the flight tracking site Flightradar24.
Passengers heard a loud bang during 'traumatising' incident
Shay Armistead, a 17-year-old passenger from Minturn, Colorado, who was headed to Santiago, Chile, for a ski trip with her club team, said Saturday's ordeal was 'kind of traumatising.'
As the plane moved down the runway, passengers heard a loud bang and believed the tire popped, Armistead said.
'The plane started vibrating and shaking really bad,' she said.
'We started tilting to the left side of the runway, and then we heard the sound of the wind from them lifting up the brakes of the plane and slamming on them really hard.'
Just a few seats down, Armistead's teammate, 16-year-old Margaret Gustafson, had a clear view out of the window and saw the maintenance issue, she said.
Gustafson said she knew something was wrong when she saw flames coming out from under the plane.
'That's when I started fully panicking,' she said.
When she heard a big boom, Gustafson was unsure where the noise came from.
'Some of us just thought we hit something and then we started really swerving on the runway,' Gustafson said. 'I personally grabbed my friend's hand who was in front of me because we didn't really know what was going on.'
The scary moment was met by immense panic among passengers.
'One passenger was screaming, 'We're all gonna die,'' Armistead said. 'Another passenger was not sitting down and cooperating, and so it was kind of just a lot of panic.'
Passengers lined up the back of the plane, where they slid down the slide attached to the plane, Armistead said.
The entire evacuation process took about 10 to 15 minutes, she recalled.
Although their ski trip plans were derailed, the teammates' flight was rescheduled to tomorrow morning.
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