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UP FRONT A3
Friday 30 October 2015
Plane catches fire at Florida airport; 1 injured
JOSH REPLOGLE Dodson said they had set Firefighters walk past a burned out engine of a Dynamic Airways Boeing 767, Thursday, Oct. 29,
Associated Press up a crisis center, flown in 2015, at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport in Dania Beach, Fla.
DANIA BEACH, Florida (AP) additional airline represen-
— A jet plane’s engine tatives to help passengers Associated Press.
caught fire Thursday as it and arranged for a relief
prepared for takeoff, and flight to take passengers to
more than 100 passengers their final destinations.
had to quickly evacuate Dynamic is a 5-year-old
using emergency slides. airline that connects Fort
One person was seriously Lauderdale, New York,
injured, officials said. Venezuela and Guyana. It
Dozens of passengers could operates seven 767s. Dy-
be seen in video footage namic said on its website
gliding down the slides of its Boeing 767s can accom-
the Dynamic Airways flight modate up to 250 people.
bound for Caracas, Vene- Officials said 110 passen-
zuela. Some ran away from gers and crew were on-
the plane into the terminal board this flight.
at Fort Lauderdale/Holly- Passengers on another
wood International Airport plane on the runway re-
as fire crews rushed to put corded the fire and post-
the blaze out. ed video to Twitter show-
Andres Gallegos said he ing plumes of thick black
was one of the first passen- smoke coming from the
gers to use the chutes to plane.
evacuate. An air traffic controller told
“I heard a loud bang. I the pilot “a lot of fluid” was
turned around, saw the leaking from his left engine
lights, saw the flames and and then urgently said the
I ran to the front of the air- engine had caught fire
craft,” said Gallegos, who and that he was dispatch-
said it took about 30 sec- ing firefighters, accord-
onds for the plane doors to ing to an audio record-
open. “It was pretty nerve- ing posted by WSVN. The
wracking, knowing that airport closed briefly after
the door wasn’t opening the fire. The south runway
and that something was on reopened Thursday after-
fire.” noon, but the north runway
Other passengers re- was still closed, causing de-
ported chaos as people lays.
screamed, cried and ran Dynamic began servic-
through the plane. Several ing Caracas in July, after
people said the flight crew several other major airlines
remained calm and acted ended or slashed service
quickly. to Venezuela over the gov-
“In that moment, the only ernment’s refusal to pay an
thing going through my estimated $4 billion the car-
mind is trying to get off the riers say they have trapped
plane,” said passenger in the country.
Daniela Magro. For Venezuelans hoping to
One person was seriously travel abroad, the options
injured and about a dozen have been severely re-
other people were taken duced to little-known carri-
to the hospital for minor ers such as Dynamic or do-
injuries including bumps, mestic carriers, which due
sprains and stress, said Bro- to the country’s economic
ward Sheriff Fire Rescue crisis, have struggled to im-
spokesman Mike Jachles. port replacement parts.
Don Dodson, the director Airline officials said they’ve
of operations for Dynamic already started reviewing
Airways, said the most seri- records for the crew and
ous injury came as a pas- the plane, which was last
senger was running across inspected in June and had
the ramp after exiting the a new engine with less than
plane. He did not specify 200 hours of flight time.
the nature of the injury. Nine crew members were
Once inside the airport, onboard — more than re-
passengers expressed frus- quired — and were a very
tration, saying they’d been experienced team, which
held in a room for over an helped evacuating pas-
hour and had not heard sengers quickly and seam-
from the airline. lessly, Dodson said.q
