Chongqing: On Thursday, a Tibet Airlines plane caught fire, after veering off the runway at a Chinese airport. All passengers and crew were “safely evacuated”, the airline said.
On Board the flight was carrying 113 passengers and nine crew members. The flight was headed from the southwestern city of Chongqing to Tibet’s Nyingchi. After “abnormalities” were noticed and take-off was suspended, causing the jet to overrun the runway, the company said in a statement.
Chinese state media broadcast images of flames devouring the side of the crippled plane as scared passengers fled the scene.
Photos from the scene showed scorch marks on the jet’s nose and one wing, which had been sprayed in water to put out the fire.
“All passengers and crew have been safely evacuated,” Tibet Airlines said in a statement.
“The injured passengers were all only lightly injured, and have been sent to hospital for treatment.”
Flight TV9833 deviated from the runway during take-off and “the left side of the aircraft’s nose caught fire”, Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport said in a separate statement.
About 40 passengers with minor injuries were sent to hospital, the airport added.
The airport said, “Operations at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport have since returned to normal. The cause of the accident is being investigated.”
The incident comes after a China Eastern flight travelling from Kunming to Guangzhou plunged from 29,000 feet into a mountainside in March, killing all 132 people on board.
No reason for that crash, China’s deadliest in around 30 years, has yet been given.
Two flight recorders, or “black boxes”, were recovered and are being analysed in the United States in the hopes of unlocking the mystery behind the China Eastern jet’s rapid descent.
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