A commercial passenger plane caught fire Thursday while taxiing for departure from Florida’s Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, federal officials said.
Fifteen people were taken to the hospital, including one who suffered serious burns, a Broward County fire official said. None of the injuries was considered life-threatening.
The airport was closed for much of the afternoon, causing long delays on flights in and out of Fort Lauderdale. Flights were expected to resume by evening, but on a limited basis, using just one runway, officials said.
The Dynamic Airways Boeing 767, with 101 passengers and crew on board, was preparing for a 12:30 p.m. ET takeoff to Caracas, Venezuela when occupants of another plane reported seeing fuel leaking from its left engine, according to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration.
In recordings of air traffic control communications, a pilot is told of the leak and then someone says, “Engine’s on fire! Engine’s on fire!”
By the time firefighters arrived, passengers were already fleeing the plane using inflatable chutes, officials said.
Using a chemical foam, firefighters put out the flames in a few minutes, officials said.
Of the 15 people sent to Broward Health Medical Center, a dozen were what a county fire-rescue spokesman called “walking wounded” — suffering bumps, scrapes and bruises. It wasn’t clear who among the injured were passengers or crew members.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team of investigators that will also include representatives from the FAA, Boeing, Dynamic and Pratt & Whitney, the engine’s manufacturer. Dynamic Airways released a statement that said the flight had been “safely diverted” following an “engine problem” without mentioning the fire or injuries. The airline, based in Greensboro, North Carolina, began flights from Fort Lauderdale to Caracas in July. The plane itself is almost 30 years old, first used in 1986 by Kuwait Airways. It has been owned by several other airlines since. Jon Schuppe, Geoff Tofield, Frank Salamone, Ilyas Kirmani, Kerry Sanders, Carolina Gonzalez and Meredith Amor contributed. This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com.
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