Chinese jet aborts takeoff, catches fire

BEIJING, May 12 (BNA): All passengers and crew members evacuated from an Airbus A319 that caught fire after its failed take-off in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing on Thursday, China’s Tibet Airlines, said.

The airline said in a statement that there were no deaths and only minor injuries among the 113 passengers and crew of the nine planes on board.

China’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) said 36 people had bruises and sprains during the evacuation of Flight TV9833 and were sent to local hospitals for examination.

The authority said in a statement that the pilots boycotted the take-off in line with the procedures after experiencing an engine malfunction, which led to a fire in the engine and a fire after the plane veered off the runway.

The aviation regulator added that emergency plans were activated and investigators rushed to the scene.

The incident came less than two months after a China Eastern Airlines plane crashed, prompting the CAAC to launch sector-wide inspections to find potential security holes.

An unverified video on social media showed a Tibet Airlines plane, affiliated with Air China, with thick smoke and flames billowing from the left side of the plane as passengers and crew were moving away.

The plane caught fire at 8:09 am local time (0009 GMT), said Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport.

Evacuation slides, which can often cause minor injuries, have been posted, according to unverified photos on social media.

The aircraft in question is a nine-year-old A319, one of the youngest versions of the A320 family. It is powered by CFM56 motors from CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and Safran, according to Airfleets.net.

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Airbus said it was aware of media reports of the accident and was doing its best to assess the situation.

Tibet Airlines is a regional airline based in Lhasa. It has a fleet of 39 aircraft, including 28 A319s, according to Airfleets.net.

On March 21, a Boeing 737-800 of China Eastern Airlines with 132 people on board crashed in the mountains in southern China, killing all on board. So far there has been little clue as to the cause of the accident.

The tragedy shocked a country that had one of the best airline safety records in the world and whose aviation sector over the past decade, prior to COVID, was one of the world’s fastest growing markets in terms of passenger traffic.


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