VIDEO: Plane Catches Fire After Crash Landing at Miami Airport
At least three people have been hospitalized after an airplane caught fire during a crash landing at Miami International Airport yesterday, local news outlets report.
A Red Air flight from the Dominican Republic touched down at the airport at about 5:30pm and tore through a communications tower and a small building before coming to a stop in the grassy area next to the runway, according to local outlet WSVN.
The problems with the flight came when the landing gear malfunctioned and fell off during the landing, causing the plane to slide across the pavement. At the time of the crash, 126 passengers and 11 crew members were on board the plane.
In the incident, three people were injured and taken to local hospitals, according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.
"What happened here is a miracle,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who had just landed in the airport on a different flight. “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.”
The right wing of the plane is on fire in videos shared to social media, which WSVN says is from the plane hitting a communication tower.
Video shows the passengers exiting the plane down the emergency slide, and reports say the passengers were all loaded onto busses and taken to a different area.
The National Transit Safety Board said it will be at the airport Wednesday morning to begin an investigation.
Listener Nate pointed out: "If you look closely at the nose, you can see the landing gear light in the nose is visible, meaning the gear was down originally."
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