Three people were taken to the hospital
A passenger in a plane forced to make an emergency crash landing has told how they thought they were “going to die” after the aircraft skidded along the runway and burst into flames.
The Red Air flight, carrying 126 passengers from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, caught fire when its landing gear failed at Miami International Airport on Tuesday.
According to Sky News, the plane slid across the runway into a communications tower before coming to a halt on the grass.
Close-up video of passengers getting off the plane | #ONLYinDADE pic.twitter.com/o3YyMU9mgx
— ONLY in DADE (@ONLYinDADE) June 22, 2022
Passengers were forced to exit the plane via the right wing, and video released on social media shows them fleeing the crash as the smoke intensifies. Other videos from the scene show the MD-82 with its nose caved in and flames roaring in the background.
Three passengers were taken to hospital for treatment.
“I thought I was going to die, actually,” passenger Paola Garcia told CBS Miami. “There was an old man next to me and I was hugging him. It was horrible.”
🚨#UPDATE: New video shows moment’s after when the Red Air plane's caught fire when the landing gear collapsed on the runway catching the aircraft on fire three people are injured and There were about 126 people on board the airline pic.twitter.com/8ker38qn3p
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) June 21, 2022
He added: “We were bumping from side to side and all the windows like break and then everything’s fine. Then the people start running and running and I like jump and start running because there was fire and all that.”
The National Transportation Safety Board is set to investigate the crash, but officials have said the issue began with a fire in the nose of the aircraft.
At least three firefighting vehicles are believed to have attended the scene.
Red Air, which is based in the Dominican Republic, launched last year, looking to offer cheap airfares between the US and the Caribbean.
Traveling Lifestyle reported Tuesday that the company had just added 20 weekly flights to the US as parts of its 2022 growth strategy.
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