Officials evacuated an American Airlines flight shortly after the plane was about to leave the tarmac during takeoff.
According to a report by CBS News, the incident occurred at Denver International Airport on Saturday afternoon at around 2:45 PM. Officials reportedly confirmed that the plane had a “possible landing gear incident during departure,” which ultimately prompted an evacuation onto the tarmac via the emergency slides.
A passenger shared dramatic footage of the evacuation, which appears to show the rear landing gear on fire.
The video shows multiple passengers exiting the vehicle, although several fall over as they reach the bottom of the slide. Smoke is pouring out of the landing gear as people walk across the runway. The footage quickly garnered hundreds of replies. Many angrily point out the number of passengers dragging their luggage onto the slide, delaying the evacuation.
Per CBS, the Instagram video was captured by Mark Tsurkis. He reportedly said, “During the speed-up, when the plane almost took off, we heard a loud boom, and I said, ‘That’s not good.'” He told the outlet, “It was definitely an unpleasant moment, but we were lucky that we didn’t get up in the air yet, so we weren’t airborne just yet, but I would imagine that it happened five to 10 seconds before we were airborne.”
Authorities Took One Passenger To The Hospital After The American Airlines Evacuation
CBS cites data from FlightAware, which reveals over 300 flights were delayed after the incident.
Per the Guardian, emergency services took one passenger to the hospital with “a minor injury.” A spokesperson for the airline reportedly said, “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 apologize to our customers for their experience.” CBS notes that paramedics evaluated five people at the runway, but they required no further treatment.
Earlier this month, a Delta Airlines plane suffered an engine failure while the aircraft was over the Atlantic. The incident prompted the pilot to make an emergency landing on the volcanic Terceria Island in the Azores archipelago.