Dynamic Airways Flight 405 was scheduled to depart Fort Lauderdale at 12:30 p.m. for Caracas.
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Passengers described the incidence as a real scare as the engine exploded.
Several hundred flights were delayed Thursday, many of those flying to or arriving from the Northeast, as Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood global Airport was forced to shut down for nearly two hours. The controller then urgently tells the pilot that the engine has caught fire and that firefighters are being dispatched.
“The left engine caught fire on departure”, said Alan Siegel in an interview on CBS News.
The Boeing 767 that caught fire was manufactured in 1986 and was one of the earliest versions of that airliner.
Image: An aerial view of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood worldwide Airport.
Passengers evacuated via emergency slides. One man was said to be seriously injured after falling and hitting his head while running on the tarmac. We have new pictures of their harrowing escape but the question this morning, why was that jet leaking fuel?
“It’s still going to be hot”, Meyer said, adding that the runway couldn’t be opened until fire and rescue crews cleared the taxiway and the runway was inspected for damage and debris. All of the passengers were expected to make a recovery, and rescuers are still examining other people who were rescued from the flight.
Most had minor injuries, including bumps, bruises and sprains or were stressed from the experience, he said.
Fifteen people were taken to the hospital, one with serious burn wounds and two with less serious injuries, Michael Jachles, a spokesman for Broward Sheriff’s Office, told reporters. Dynamic is a six-year-old airline that operates a half dozen 767s. Dynamic stated on its web site its Boeing 767s can accommodate as much as 250 individuals.
“It looks like the crew did exactly the right thing”, he said.
An ambulance, fire truck and other emergency vehicles were immediately on the scene to help douse the fire, photos surfacing on social media revealed.
An aircraft taxiing behind the Dynamic jet reported that fuel was leaking from it before the fire began, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said.
“An airline in financial trouble is supposed to be put under a special watch”, Schiavo said.
Although, firemen quickly brought the fire under control, the airport remained closed for a while after the incident. But memories of what happened around 12:30 p.m. the previous day lingered.
For Venezuelans hoping to travel overseas, the options have been severely reduced to little-known carries such as Dynamic or domestic carriers, which due to the country’s economic crisis, have struggled to import replacement parts.
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Dynamic said it was arranging accommodation and transport for all the passengers impacted, and that it expects to continue operations as per its schedule on Friday.
