South Korea plane bursts into Flames in Busan, the second tragedy in just a month. Credit: @turbinetraveler, Twitter.
Emergency services were called in at around 10:30pm local time to attend to the devastating scene that saw the A321 aircraft, engulfed in fiery carnage, which had carried 176 passengers. All were successfully evacuated, but three were injured as a result of the incident.
The incident took place at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea, as an emergency evacuation had to be immediately ensured to prevent any fatalities as a result of the disaster.
Incident took place before plane had time to take off
The blaze, thankfully, began just as the aircraft was planning to take off, which allowed emergency services to intervene effectively. If the plane was already high in the skies, serious, and quite possibly fatal, consequences would have ensued.
Fire authorities confirmed at the scene that at least one passenger has been taken to hospital amid the incident, which has been spread throughout social media platforms as onlookers dramatically captured the plane on mobile phones as it succumbed to the fire.
With smoke billowing from the aircraft, media outlets in Korea claimed the flames were about to spread toward the fuselage, with emergency services on hand to scupper any further damage.
The A321 flight was set to travel to Hong Kong from Busan.
Just month after South Korea’s deadliest aviation disaster
The story comes just a month after the country’s deadliest ever aviation disaster struck South Korea, when a Jeju plane, which had been travelling from Bangkok, crashed on the runway, killing 179 people on board on December 29.
Investigators are still trying to find the primary cause of the crash, with current leads suggesting that duck feathers may have contributed to the incident, as they were found in both engines of the plane.
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