Passengers on a Spirit Airlines had a daunting landing in Atlanta on Sunday morning when their plane caught fire on the tarmac after certainly one of its brakes overheated, a spokesperson for the airline confirmed.
Flashes of flames appeared close to the plane’s tires as clouds of smoke billowed out in direction of the again upon its landing at Atlanta International Airport round 9:30 a.m. EST, video posted to social media exhibits.
“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.”
An analogous assertion appeared on the Atlanta Airport’s Twitter account, noting that the incident was due to brakes catching fire and that there have been no accidents reported.
Video posted to social media that appears to be from a passenger on the flight exhibits different passengers showing to panic and get out of their seats to look out the window whereas flight attendants urged them to keep seated and mentioned that they didn’t but have to evacuate. About 45 minutes later, the identical consumer posted a video of a fire truck on the scene.
Passenger Scottie Nelms told Tampa Bay’s local FOX affiliate that the plane began making a “weird noise” from its left facet 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 “massive fowl” flew through the engine, causing a jet fire and forcing the pilots to abort takeoff.