A Tibet Airlines plane caught fire this morning at the Chinese airport in Chongqing after going off the runway: the Xinhua agency reported, according to which some passengers were injured without specifying their conditions and their number. “A direct flight from Chongqing to Lhasa went off the runway at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport, causing the plane to catch fire,” explained the state network CCTV.
China, a plane with 122 people on board explodes after exiting the runway
All passengers and crew were “safely evacuated,” Tibet Airlines clarified in a statement, adding that the injured people, all “mildly”, were still transported to hospital for treatment. The flight, which carried 113 passengers and 9 crew members, was headed from the Chongqing megacity to Nyingchi, Tibet, when the crew noticed “anomalies” and “suspended take-off”, causing the runway to go off the runway and a fire.
Images shared by Chinese state media showed flames engulfing the wing of the hit jet with fleeing passengers. The incident occurred while China is still shaken by the very serious accident in March of the flight operated by China Eastern traveling from Kunming to Guangzhou, crashing into a mountain killing all 132 people on board. Ongoing investigations have not yet provided a reason for the plane crash which was the most serious in China in the past 30 years. The two black boxes, albeit damaged, have been recovered and are being analyzed in the United States in the hope of shedding light on the matter. Preliminary data found that flight and cabin crew qualifications ‘met safety requirements’.