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Plane Catches Fire At McCarran Airport, 13 People Hurt

Las Vegas British Airways fire
Associated Press

A British Airways flight caught on fire while preparing to take off from McCarran Airport Tuesday night.

Thirteen people were hurt when an engine on a British Airways jet caught fire Tuesday night while the plane was preparing to take off from Las Vegas, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The newspaper reports the injuries were minor.

McCarran International Airport spokesman Chris Jones said 159 passengers and 13 crew members on the flight used emergency slides to get off the plane.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says the plane's left engine caught fire Tuesday afternoon. Billowing black smoke and orange flames could be seen pouring from the plane's wings before about 50 firefighters quickly doused the aircraft.

Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak told KNPR’s State of Nevada that one of the runways was closed because of the fire, but according to several media reports it reopened Tuesday night.

Sisolak said the county has a fire station at McCarran that is designed and equipped to handle these kinds of situations. 

"They go through this training regularly to prepare, unfortunately, for incidents such as this and they were ready and they performed their functions to the 'T,'" Sisolak said.

Within just seconds of the fire being reported, firefighters from Fire Station 13 were on scene dousing the fire.

Sisolak said the station has responded to other incidents but Tuesday's fire was one of the largest the firefighters there have had to deal with recently.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident. 

(The Associated Press contributed to this report)

 

 

Steve Sisolak, commissioner, Clark County Commissioner

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Joe Schoenmann joined Nevada Public Radio in 2014. He works with a talented team of producers at State of Nevada who explore the casino industry, sports, politics, public health and everything in between.