The airline said all 113 passengers and nine crew members have been safely evacuated.
Chongqing:
A Tibet Airlines plane caught fire after it took off from the runway at a Chinese airport on Thursday, but all passengers and crew were “escaped safely”, the airline said.
The company said the flight carrying 113 passengers and nine crew was on its way from the southwestern city of Chongqing to Ningchi in Tibet when the crew noticed “abnormalities” and “suspended take-off”, causing the jet to overtake the runway. Gaya and the fire broke out, the company said in a statement.
Images shared by Chinese state media showed flames engulfing the wing of the stricken jet as frightened passengers fled the scene.
“All passengers and crew have been evacuated safely,” Tibet Airlines said in a statement. “The injured passengers were only marginally injured, and have been sent to hospital for treatment.”
According to reports, a Tibet Airlines flight took off from the runway at around 8:00 on May 12 and caught fire while taking off at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport.#chongqing#plane crash #firepic.twitter.com/re3OeavOTA
— BST2022 (@baoshitie1) 12 May 2022
The incident occurred in March after a China Eastern flight from Kunming to Guangzhou crashed into a mountain from 29,000 feet, killing all 132 people on board.
No cause was given for that crash, which is China’s deadliest disaster in nearly 30 years.
Two flight recorders, or “black boxes”, were recovered and are being analyzed in the United States in hopes of uncovering the mystery behind the China Eastern jet’s rapid descent.
The investigation found that the flight and cabin crew’s qualifications “meet the requirements”, and the same was said of the maintenance staff.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)