Cincinnati-Bound Delta Flight Catches Fire In Nashville
A flight caught fire early Friday while preparing to take off from Nashville International Airport.
Passengers on board the Delta flight heading from Nashville to Cincinnati reported the fire at approximately 6:45 a.m. CDT.
The flight had just started, not yet having reached the runway, when a fire became visible from the airport building. Some passengers posted pictures of the fire to Twitter.
Awkward moment when your plane catches on fire. pic.twitter.com/SDOzj6UII0
— Matt Miller (@thematt_miller) August 7, 2015
The fire only lasted about a minute. It began when pilots turned the engines on, but it extinguished itself right after the engines were turned back off.
“The auxiliary power unit caught fire but when they turned the engine back off the fire extinguished itself and the plane was brought back to the gate and all passengers were de-boarded,” said Shannon Sumrall, a spokeswoman for the airport.
By 7:45 a.m. CDT, nearly all the passengers were booked on another flight.
“No one heard anything. The plane really just stopped in the middle of the tarmac,” said Phil Cobucci, a passenger on board the flight. “The captain said, ‘We had a misfire,’ which didn’t really make it sound like the picture I saw (later) when they started popping up on Twitter.”
Cobucci continued, “[T]here wasn’t any drama. Everyone is fine. It was more like an inconvenience, really.”
“Within five to 10 seconds the fire went out on its own. A lot of the ground workers were running toward the plane. It extinguished pretty quickly and some emergency personnel arrived,” said Jason Taylor, a University of Utah professor.
engine fire on Skywest plane on tarmac at Nashville airport. Fire is out and plane looks ok now. @Nashville_ABC pic.twitter.com/JlKT7ngb5R
— Jason Taylor (@jltaylo) August 7, 2015
Taylor was preparing to board his flight to Salt Lake City when he saw the fire from the window of the building.
“The ball of fire lasted for several seconds,” Taylor told the Tennessean. “It freaked a lot of people out. You don’t often see fires on planes.”
No one was hurt in the Delta flight fire.
Roughly a week ago, two other flights were reported to have caught fire at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
A Chicago-bound American Airline flight had to be evacuated due to smoke in the cabin. Three passengers suffered minor injuries in the evacuation, but within a few hours, everyone had been placed on another flight. The fire on that flight happened just before departure, much like the Delta flight.
The other flight affected was from Spirit Airlines and was just arriving to Dallas from Orlando.
As the flight landed, the tires caught fire. Emergency crews were quick to put out the flames, and the passengers were able to deplane safely.
[Image courtesy of David McNew/Getty Images]
