Scary landing for passengers flying from Tampa to Atlanta on Sunday morning.
Spirit Flight 383 traveling in the morning from Tampa International to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport when the landing gear on the plane caught fire.
A rep from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport posted on the airport’s official Twitter page that the brakes on the Spirit Airlines plane ignited.
You can see video from the flight that shows passengers watching the fire outside through the plane windows.
Scottie Nelms was one of the passengers on the flight. He spoke to our friends at News Channel 8 about what happened on the flight. “Two or three seconds (after landing) you heard a thump. I see people getting up and looking around and they saw it was a fire.”
He explained that the flight attendants hurried to the front of the plane and then told the passengers to stay calm.
Nelms said, “Everybody was up in a panic. We were trying to get off the plane.”In a tweet, Nelms said, “We saw a flame coming from the engine and people and myself started freaking out but after a few seconds I knew to pull my phone out and start recording.”
Spirit Airlines has released information explaining that a brake overheated, which caused the fire. Atlanta firefighters and rescue were able to extinguish the fire without incident.
“Everyone had that thought in their head about ‘what if I don’t get off that plane in time?’” Nelms said and added that he knew of incidents on Spirit Airlines but had never experienced any. “I was just blind to the fact that it wouldn’t happen to me.”
There were no injuries during the incident.
Spirit Airlines released a statement that included the following: “Thank you to the Atlanta first responders for immediately meeting the aircraft. The plane will be temporarily removed from service for maintenance.”
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