A China-bound AirAsia flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Kuala Lumpur due to an engine fire shortly after takeoff, Malaysian authorities said.
Flight AK128 to Shenzhen returned to the Kuala Lumpur international airport after a fire started in the right engine of the Airbus A320 shortly after its 9.59pm local time departure on Wednesday.
The cause of the fire was identified as a “pneumatic ducting burst”, Selangor state’s fire and rescue department said.
Pneumatic ducting routes pressurised air throughout the plane for engine functions as well as cabin pressurisation.
The fire was completely extinguished by the aircraft’s in-built safety system before it landed shortly after midnight, the fire department said, adding that all 171 passengers and crew were unharmed.
The department deployed nine personnel and a fire engine to runway 3 after receiving a distress call at 10.37pm local time, assistant director of operations Ahmad Mukhlis Mukhtar said.
The firefighters ensured passengers and crew exited the aircraft safely and made checks to ensure no further fires erupted. “All 171 passengers and crew safely disembarked,” Mr Mukhtar told reporters on Thursday morning.
Malaysian transport minister Anthony Loke said he had received a preliminary report from the Civil Aviation Authority. “AirAsia will issue a statement on what happened shortly to address the issue. At this point, I do not want to preempt anything,” Mr Loke said.
“Let the authorities investigate as normal procedure as any emergency landing will be investigated thoroughly.”
Earlier this month, 12 passengers were taken to hospital in Colorado, US, after an American Airlines flight caught fire while taxiing on the tarmac.
Photos and videos posted on social media showed passengers standing on the Boeing 737-800 plane’s wings as the flames engulfed its underside. The passengers were eventually brought to safety via slides.
One passenger told CBS Colorado that shortly after landing, passengers started catching a “weird burning plastic smell”.
“Then everybody started screaming and saying there was a fire,” Gabrielle Hibbitts, travelling with her mother and sister, recalled.
Source: independent.co.uk
