CNN is reporting 15 injuries—one of them serious—when the port (left) engine of a Dynamic International Airways 767-200 engines caught fire as it was taxing out for takeoff Thursday afternoon. Flight 405, with 101 on board, was bound from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in southern Florida to Caracas, Venezuela.
Taking your bags in an emergency may kill you.
Although there’s no indication the two incidents are related, this marks the second serious engine fire to befall a Boeing twinjet Boeing widebody in the past two months. September 8, British Airways Flight 2276, from Las Vegas to London Gatwick, a Boeing 777-200, was set to depart when an engine caught fire. The 767 and 777 are powered by two different types of jet engines.
CNN says one of the pilots of an aircraft following the Dynamic 767 said the left engine was leaking fuel before the fire erupted.
Thick, blackish grey smoke began to billow from the aircraft’s wing. It wasn’t long before crash fire rescue gear and first responders were on the scene. CNN quotes Broward County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Mike Jachles as saying rescuers responded within two minutes, and the aircraft evacuated within six minutes.
Dynamic International Airways fields flights to such diverse destinations as South America, Hong Kong, Palau, and China. The airline is certificated in the United States and is based in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a team of investigators to Fort Lauderdale to investigate just what happened to Flight 405.
