Thankfully, only a handful of people on board suffered minor injuries.
A British Airways plane that was bound for London from Las Vegas caught fire while taking off last night, forcing the evacuation of all 172 people on board.
Footage recorded at the scene in McCarran International Airport shows the British Airways aircraft engulfed in flames and thick black smoke after it caught fire as a result of what is being described as “catastrophic engine failure”.
Clip via Balaji Rajgiri
159 passengers and 13 crew members were all evacuated safely having had to escape the plane via emergency slides, with officials reporting that 13 people had to be treated for minor injuries as a result.
Jacob Steinberg of The Guardian was one of the passengers on board the plane and his account of the ordeal on Twitter makes for pretty terrifying reading.
https://twitter.com/JacobSteinberg/status/641397263856717824
https://twitter.com/JacobSteinberg/status/641398758043877376
https://twitter.com/JacobSteinberg/status/641398896896270337
https://twitter.com/JacobSteinberg/status/641399138215530496
https://twitter.com/JacobSteinberg/status/641399821685780480
https://twitter.com/JacobSteinberg/status/641407974229938176
https://twitter.com/JacobSteinberg/status/641409990121537536
https://twitter.com/JacobSteinberg/status/641414479620673536
https://twitter.com/JacobSteinberg/status/641425743994470400
https://twitter.com/JacobSteinberg/status/641426706503327744
https://twitter.com/JacobSteinberg/status/641473372208009216
https://twitter.com/JacobSteinberg/status/641473643722084356
https://twitter.com/JacobSteinberg/status/641473898672877568
British Airways have said that an investigation will soon take place in an effort to discover the exact cause of the fire on board the aircraft.
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