Passengers Evacuated as American Airlines Jet Catches Fire at Chicago Airport

An American Airlines jet had to abort take off and evacuate passengers through its emergency chutes on Friday. The plane caught fire moments prior to takeoff from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, authorities said.

No serious injuries were reported.

The airline said in a statement that an “engine-related issue” prevented the takeoff of American Airlines Flight 383. The Boeing 767 was bound for Miami with 161 passengers and a crew of nine.

The flight crew reported that a tire had blown-out while the plane was rolling down the runway before takeoff was canceled, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The FAA or the airline did not mention a fire.

However, footage from WLS-TV, Chicago’s ABC News affiliate station, showed an American Airlines jet on the ground with flames and large clouds of black smoke rising from one side of the aircraft. Emergency slides had been deployed and passengers gathered about the aircraft. They watched the blaze as fire trucks sprayed water on the flames.

Passenger Hector Gustavo Cardenas posted a video clip on Facebook showing passengers yelling at each other to move faster as they head down the aisle to the emergency exit slide.

The Chicago Department of Aviation confirmed in a statement that the city fire department acted in response to an aircraft fire concerning American Airlines Flight 383. They also verified that the passengers were evacuated from the plane. Moreover, it said that there was no crash involved in the incident.

A flight attendant and seven passengers were taken to a hospital for evaluation of minor injuries, the company said.

According to an American Airlines spokeswoman, the injuries were typical of those related with evacuating a commercial jet. None of them involved burns or smoke inhalation.

Incident causes major disruption of airport operations

The incident required the closing of at least three of the airport’s eight runways, the city Aviation Department said.

About two hours following the incident, the airport had experienced 170 delays of inbound flights and 130 departing flights. This was reported by the flight-tracking website FlightAware.com

Based on web tracking sites and a live feed of tower conversations from liveatc.net, operations later resumed on the north side of O’Hare airport, one of the world’s busiest.

 

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