Reminiscent of last month's nightmarish upside-down Delta Air Lines plane, another flight disaster was caught in eerie footage yesterday at the Denver airport. This time, dozens of American Airlines passengers can be seen standing on the wing of a burning plane.
The Boeing 737-800 flight, carrying 172 passengers and six crew members, was headed to Dallas-Fort Worth from Colorado Springs when the crew noticed "engine vibrations," according to the Federal Aviation Administration via CNN. The pilots at first denied it was an "emergency," but thankfully still decided to divert the plane to Denver. "After landing and while taxiing to the gate, an engine caught fire."
Although nobody was seriously hurt, 12 travelers went to the hospital "with minor injuries."
See an incredible montage video below (posted by The Australian), which shows people lined up on top of the wing, as well as an evacuated plane draped in billowing black smoke.
From CNN:
Shortly before landing, the plane's pilot notified air traffic controllers in Denver that the flight was experiencing engine issues, but it was not an emergency, according to air traffic control audio from LiveATC.net.
"American 10,006, uh, 1006 just to verify not an emergency still, correct?" the controller asked.
"Nah, we just have a high engine vibration so we are cruising slower than normal," the pilot responded.
The situation appeared to quickly escalate several minutes later, after the plane landed, when someone on the radio yelled "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! Mayday! … engine fire!" …
Ground crews appeared to extinguish the fire relatively quickly, according to a video filmed by a passenger inside the airport. Footage shows bright orange flames and black smoke disappearing and turning into a misty white haze as workers put out the fire.
This is just the latest in a string of flight disasters in the last couple of months, including the Delta Airlines flight that landed upside down in Toronto three weeks ago, the deadly American Airlines flight that crashed midair into a helicopter, and the deadly crashes in both Alaska and Philadelphia.
Previously: Trump fires "hundreds" of FAA workers — hours before yet another deadly plane crash
