Chinese passenger jet veers off runway, catches fire during takeoff

A passenger jet veered off a runway throughout take-off and caught fireplace in China on Could 12, 2022.
Liu Chan/Xinhua by way of AP

BEIJING — A Chinese language passenger jet veered off the runway throughout takeoff and caught fireplace on Thursday, sending black smoke billowing into the air and injuring greater than 30 individuals.

The Tibet Airways flight with 122 individuals on board was departing from the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing for a flight to Nyingchi in China’s Tibet area.

Movies shared by state media confirmed the left facet of the plane on fireplace as individuals who seemed to be passengers headed away from the scene. Different footage confirmed fireplace vans spraying water on the airplane. The accident occurred at 8:09 a.m., Tibet Airways mentioned.

The Airbus A319-115 jet had 113 passengers and 9 flight crew on board, all of whom had been evacuated. In the course of the evacuation, 36 individuals had been injured with sprains or scrapes, in keeping with the southwest regional department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

“Within the technique of taking off, the flight crew found an abnormality with the plane and stopped the takeoff in keeping with the procedures. The plane left the runway and caught fireplace after the engine hit the bottom. At the moment the fireplace has been put out,” the aviation authorities mentioned in a press release.

One passenger, Lengthy Anquan, advised China Information Service that in takeoff he heard an uncommon noise, after which the airplane began to lean to at least one facet and hit the bottom with its wing. Lengthy shortly bent ahead and put his fingers over his head, however the impression was so robust that he was nonetheless injured.

Lengthy mentioned he felt fortunate to outlive. “I’ve used up all my luck in my whole life,” he mentioned in an interview with China Information Service.

The Chinese language flight monitoring platform VariFlight mentioned the airplane is 9 1/2 years previous.

The airport mentioned about two hours after the accident that flights had resumed and that an investigation was underway. One of many three runways remained closed, the CAAC mentioned.

The incident follows the crash of a China Jap Boeing 737-800 in southeastern China on March 21 wherein all 132 individuals on board had been killed. That accident, wherein the airplane went right into a sudden nosedive and slammed into the bottom in a mountainous space, stays below investigation.