Passenger Plane Catches Fire Landing in Miami — 3 People Hospitalized
A passenger plane carrying 126 people crash landed at Miami International Airport after a faulty landing gear caused the aircraft to skid down the runway before catching on fire. Three passengers were hospitalized with minor injuries, according to NBC Miami.
At around 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Red Air Flight 203, arriving from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, landed in Miami. However, when a landing gear on the nose of the plane failed to operate correctly, the aircraft was then sent sliding on its belly down the runway.
Eventually, the wing of the plane caught fire, forcing an emergency evacuation. Footage from the day shows flames emitting from the side of the aircraft as well as large, black smokestacks coming out of the flames. Per the source, “When I saw the fire, when I jumped out of the airplane, I saw a lot of smoke, it was dark actually, then it was like a burnt smell,” passenger Paolo Delgado said.
Another passenger, Paola Garcia, said, “I thought I was going to die actually, I had an old man next to me and I was like hugging him. Horrible. It was horrible.”
RED Air is a budget airline based out of the Dominican Republic that first launched in November 2021. It only flies between Santo Domingo and Miami. An excerpt of their official statement, reported by The Miami Herald, reads: “At RED Air we express our absolute solidarity with the passengers and crew of the aircraft.”
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava was on board a different flight that was landing at Miami International Airport around the same time. Upon hearing of the crash, Levine Cava went immediately to investigate.
Per NBC, “The plane landed, apparently a tire burst and then it went back up and came back down and the landing was so hard that the entire landing apparatus was destroyed and the belly of the plane is on the ground,” Levine Cava told reporters. “Immediately when I deplaned I went to see for myself and of course what happened here is a miracle.”
AP reports that the National Transportation Safety Board is expected to arrive today to investigate the cause of the malfunction.
