Chinese jet catches fire after aborting the takeoff

May 16, 2022: -On Thursday, China’s Tibet Airlines said all passengers and crew had been taken out from an Airbus A319 plane that caught fire after aborting takeoff in the southwestern city of Chongqing.

There were zero deaths and minor injuries among the 113 passengers and nine crew members on the plane, the airline said in a statement.

Civil Aviation Administration of China said 36 people had bruises and sprains in the evacuation of flight TV9833 and were taken to the local hospitals for checkups.

The pilot is interpreting the takeoff in line with procedures after experiencing an abnormality, CAAC said in a statement, which led to an engine scrape and fire after the plane veered off the runway.

The aviation regulator added that emergency plans were activated, and investigators rushed to the scene.

The incident came two months after a China Eastern Airlines plane crash, which led CAAC to launch a safety drive.

Unverified video on social media proved that a Tibet Airlines plane, a subsidiary of Air China, with heavy smoke and flames coming from the aircraft’s left side as passengers and crew walked away.

According to Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport, the aircraft caught fire at 8:09 a.m. local time.

According to unverified photos on social media, evacuation slides, which can often cause minor injuries, were deployed.

The plane involved is an A319, one of the most miniature versions of the A320 family. It is powered by CFM56 engines from CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and Safran, according to Airfleets.net.

Airbus said that it was aware of media reports about the incident and made all efforts to assess it.

Tibet Airlines is a regional airline from Lhasa. It has a fleet of 39 planes, which include 28 A319s, according to Airfleets.net.

On March 21, a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 with 132 people on board crashed in the mountains in southern China, which killed everyone on board. So far, there have been few clues regarding the cause of the accident.