BOEING’S WOES CONTINUE

Boeing Plane With 200 People on Board Catches Fire Before Takeoff

After a fireball burst from under one of the plane’s wings, 184 passengers including a newborn baby evacuated using the emergency slides.

A Ryanair flight from Brindisi, Italy bound for Turin was ready for takeoff Thursday when one of the jet’s engines suddenly burst into flames, forcing the emergency evacuation of 184 passengers, one of them a newborn baby. The crew activated the Boeing 737-800’s emergency slides, allowing those on board to exit quickly and firefighters extinguished the flames shortly thereafter. Regional state broadcaster TGR Puglia obtained images showing a fireball exploding from under one of the plane’s wings and passengers sliding down to safety. No injuries were reported. Brindisi Airport was closed for three hours while emergency and maintenance personnel investigated the scene and no details about the cause of the engine failure were immediately available.