Monday, August 20, 2007

Amazing: Airliner Explodes And Nobody Even Gets Hurt!

All the crew and passengers -- 165 people in all -- are safe after a China Airlines plane exploded Monday, shortly after landing At Okinawa, Japan. A fuel leak is suspected and Taiwan has grounded its fleet of Boeing 737-800s.

Debbie Wu of the AP via the Guardian:
All 165 passengers and crew scrambled down emergency chutes or jumped from cockpit windows - some just seconds before the blast.

Passengers described a normal landing after Flight CI-120 landed on the resort island of Okinawa from the Taiwanese capital of Taipei. But as the jet came to a stop near the terminal, they said that the left engine began smoking, followed by the right one.
...

When the smoke started billowing outside the plane, the cabin crew already was standing by the doors, said a passenger who gave his surname as Tsang and identified himself as a guide for Taipei's Southeast Tours.

"The passengers saw the smoke first and they began to yell and demand that the doors be opened," he said.
So they all got out in time, and nobody even got hurt.

Debbie Wu has a lot more and there's more elsewhere of course, including this from the BBC:
The passengers - including two kids - and crew got off the plane using inflatable emergency slides.
...

Police said terrorism was not suspected.