Late Tuesday at an airport in South Korea, a passenger plane caught fire before takeoff. However, all 176 individuals on board were safely evacuated according to authorities.
The Transport Ministry stated that the Airbus plane, operated by South Korean airline Air Busan, was getting ready to depart for Hong Kong when its rear parts caught fire at Gimhae International Airport in the southeast.
The plane’s 169 passengers, six crewmembers and one engineer were evacuated using an escape slide, the ministry said.
In a release, the National Fire Agency reported that during the evacuation, three individuals sustained minor injuries. The agency also mentioned that firefighters and fire trucks were deployed at the scene, and the fire was completely extinguished at 11:31 p.m., approximately one hour after their arrival.
Mayor of Busan Park Heong-joon and other officials visit the site where an Air Busan airplane caught fire at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (Son Hyung-joo/Yonhap via AP)
The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately known. The Transport Ministry said the plane is an A321 model.
Tuesday’s incident came a month after a Jeju Air passenger plane crashed at Muan International Airport in southern South Korea, killing all but two of the 181 people on board. It was one of the deadliest disasters in South Korea’s aviation history.
The Boeing 737-800 skidded off the airport’s runaway on Dec. 29 after its landing gear failed to deploy, slamming into a concrete structure and bursting into flames. The flight was returning from Bangkok and all of the victims were South Koreans except for two Thai nationals.
The first report on the crash released Monday said authorities have confirmed traces of bird strikes in the plane’s engines, though officials haven’t determined the cause of the accident.
