Passengers on a Spirit Airlines had a frightening landing in Atlanta on Sunday morning when their plane caught fire on the tarmac after one of its brakes overheated, a spokesperson for the airline confirmed.
Flashes of flames appeared near the plane’s tires as clouds of smoke billowed out towards the back upon its landing at Atlanta International Airport around 9:30 a.m. EST, video posted to social media shows.
“Spirit Flight 383 from Tampa to Atlanta landed safely in Atlanta International Airport and upon landing one of the brakes overheated,” a spokesperson said. “The aircraft was towed to the gate where Guests safely deplaned without any injuries. Thank you to the Atlanta first responders for immediately meeting the aircraft. The plane will be temporarily removed from service for maintenance.”
A similar statement appeared on the Atlanta Airport’s Twitter account, noting that the incident was due to brakes catching fire and that there were no injuries reported.
Video posted to social media that appears to be from a passenger on the flight shows other passengers appearing to panic and get out of their seats to look out the window while flight attendants urged them to stay seated and said that they did not yet have to evacuate. About 45 minutes later, the same user posted a video of a fire truck on the scene.
Passenger Scottie Nelms told Tampa Bay’s local FOX affiliate that the plane started making a “weird noise” from its left side upon landing.
“Nobody knew what it was until we stopped completely in the middle of the landing strip,” Nelms told FOX 5. “We saw a flame coming from the engine and people and myself started freaking out.”
This isn’t the first time the airline carrier has dealt with a fire on one of its planes: last October, passengers were taken off a Spirit flight that was supposed to depart from Atlantic City International Airport in New Jersey after a “large bird” flew through the engine, causing a jet fire and forcing the pilots to abort takeoff.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
