Plane catches fire after crash-landing at Miami airport, 3 injured
(NewsNation) — A federal investigation is underway to determine what caused a jetliner carrying 126 people to catch fire when it crash-landed at Miami International Airport this week, injuring at least three people.
The airplane still sat on the tarmac Wednesday morning with two fire trucks sitting alongside it after the crash Tuesday evening. Surrounding runways have reopened, but NTSB investigators are expected to arrive at the scene sometime Wednesday. They will try to determine what caused the plane’s landing gear to collapse, and learn whether this incident could have been prevented.
“Shout out Miami-Dade. Picking up all the passengers: looks like they all made it. Thank God,” a man said while filming a video of the scene.
Drivers just outside the airport, watched the scene unfold. Another driver said in a video, “Look at the people jumping out. Look.”
Firefighters were quickly able to douse the plane in foam and prevent the fire from spreading further.
The plane was arriving in Miami after taking off from Santa Domingo in the Dominican Republic when that landing gear collapsed, causing it to land on its belly. Red Air, a budget airline that only flies between Santa Domingo and Miami, is a fairly new airline that started up last year. The airlines said they are hoping to expand over the next year or two.
On Tuesday, the mayor of Miami-Dade Daniella Levine Cava visited the scene, responding minutes after the accident happened. Cava said that fire crews were able to respond within minutes, and luckily, only three people were hospitalized with minor injuries.
The age of that aircraft has come into question as the investigation continues.