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Emirates jet catches fire on runway
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Posted on Feb 01 2001
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An engine on an Emirates Airline jetliner exploded as the plane barreled down an Australian airport runway Tuesday, forcing the pilot to abort the takeoff and leaving its 213 passengers shaken.
The Boeing 777-300 was halfway down the main runway at Melbourne Airport when flames began spewing from the engine, airport spokesman Geoffrey Conaghan said.
Passengers said flames shot from the engine and smoke filled the cabin.
“It was an absolutely terrifying experience,” British passenger Joanne Hume told television Channel Nine News. “I thought, ‘My time is up.”’
It was not immediately known how fast the plane was going, “but at the point that the incident occurred, it would have been charging down the runway,” Conaghan said.
Flight EK609 was taking off for Dubai, with a stop in Singapore. The plane returned safely to the terminal, and there were no injuries.
Emirates Airline said the problem with the Rolls Royce Trent 800 engine had not been determined.
The blast scattered scraps of metal across the runway, and cleanup crews working in darkness took hours to remove the debris. Other flights were diverted to a second runway.
