A man filmed himself evacuating from a burning plane on Tuesday while holding a mobile phone and a large wheelie case in one hand and a bottle of water in the other.
The incident occurred after a Red Air flight from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to Miami veered off the runway shortly after touchdown and suffered a nose wheel collapse.
After veering off the runway, the small MD-82 aircraft hit an airport structure which caused the right engine to erupt into flames. The NTSB has despatched a ‘go team’ to Miami to collect evidence from the scene as part of its investigation into what caused the accident.
All 140 passengers and 11 crew members were evacuated from the aircraft using emergency chutes. Three passengers were taken to the hospital for minor injuries but there were no serious injuries reported.
Unbelievably, passengers were seen jumping from the burning jet while carrying large pieces of hand luggage.
In 2019, an accident involving an Aeroflot flight at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport resulted in 41 people losing their lives after the aircraft burst into flames on landing.
Accident investigators concluded that the death rate was so high because passengers at the front of the plane impeded the exit of others behind them so that they could collect their hand luggage.
Red Air started operations as a low-cost carrier in November 2021 with a fleet of MD-11 aircraft operating a single route between Santo Domingo and Miami International. There is no word yet on what caused the accident.
