Dramatic footage shows American Airlines passengers evacuating their plane after an engine burst into flames at Denver Airport.
Smoke can be seen billowing around the travellers as they flee the aircraft via one of the wings and the emergency slides yesterday afternoon.
The airline said all 172 passengers and six crew members made it off the Boeing 737-800 plane, with 12 needing hospital treatment for minor injuries.
Flight AA 1006 from Colorado Springs was diverted from its planned destination of Dallas after the crew reported vibrations coming from the engine.
Aaron Clark witnessed the drama from inside the terminal while waiting for his own flight.
He said: ‘We were near (gate) B44, just landed from Pittsburgh. We stopped by the windows for a second and saw a flash of sudden fire, followed by a ton of smoke.
‘The fire was very brief and looked like it was extinguished pretty quickly by ground crews.
‘The smoke continued for a while and that’s when we saw people starting to exit from the rear slides.’
The FAA said it would investigate the incident. A Denver International Airport spokesperson said the fire had been extinguished and flight operations had continued as normal.
The engine fire is the latest in a series of high-profile aviation incidents that have raised questions about US aviation safety.
The worst of those was the January 29 mid-air collision of an American Airlines regional jet and an Army helicopter that killed 67 people.
Last month, a Delta Air Lines regional jet flipped upside down upon landing at Canada’s Toronto Pearson Airport in windy weather following a snowstorm.
Some 18 of the 80 people on board were injured, but all passengers and crew members survived the incident.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom and Delta CEO Ed Bastian cited recent air crashes and weather events as contributing factors to dampening US travel demand, alongside mounting economic uncertainty.
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