Ashwin Menon did not imagine that the flight he boarded with his wife as they set out for a vacation would explode and go up in flames. Menon, a bit scared of flying, told local news media outlets that passengers went into panic mode when pilots told them to evacuate from the plane when it caught fire.
Meanwhile, a new video has emerged which captures the moment the aircraft filled with passengers went on fire at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport shortly after it landed on the night of April 6. The video released by US-based local news outlet KOMO NEWS shows a fireball exploding and black smoke rising from the nose of the Airbus jet, below the cockpit.
Delta Flight 604 on Monday last week caught on fire starting in the nose of the aircraft.It had just landed and taxied to a stop in Cancun, Mexico.
The plane then had to be evacuated.
00:18 Fire01:55 Evactuation
Did Delta’s DEI policies cause this?
@JeremyHarrisTV pic.twitter.com/gehB2VV3oq
— Paul A. Szypula (@Bubblebathgirl) May 14, 2024
The flight, Delta Flight 604, from Cancun, Mexico did arrive safely at the Washington airport but things went awry when the plane was plugged into the terminal’s electrical network.
Seattle airport spokesperson Perry Cooper said the plug-in shorted out and sent sparks flying and sparked a fire directly beneath the cockpit of the Airbus A321 aircraft. When the pilots smelled the smoke, they immediately told the crew to open the emergency exit slides.
“I think people responded to that with panic, there was a little bit of jostling in the aisles to get to the exit,” said Menon, a Seattle software engineer who was coming home from vacation with his wife. “But overall it was a pretty smooth evacuation process. It was like just jump out, jump onto the slides, and within a couple minutes everyone was out. I’m quite afraid of flying,” Menon was quoted as saying by the New York Post.
The footage which is making rounds on social media shows passengers walking out onto the wing of the plane before hopping onto the inflatable chutes and then sliding to safety and onto the tarmac.
Around 126 passengers exited via the slides and the rest had already exited through the passenger loading bridge. The fire already went out on its own and no passenger required medical attention.
“Out of an abundance of caution, slides were deployed and passengers still on board deplaned via the rear of the aircraft. Passengers were fully evacuated, and those deplaned to the ramp returned to the terminal via the ramp stairs. The aircraft has been removed from service for inspection and maintenance,” Delta said.
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