‘I thought it was going to explode’: Passenger on Dominican airline that ripped through tower and burst into flames at Miami Airport describes terrifying ordeal as new footage emerges of people escaping
- Passenger Paola Garcia recalls terrifying moments after the plane crash landed in Miami
- New footage shows passengers evacuating the plane as people shout and shriek while getting off the aircraft
- The Red Air budget Dominican plane was carrying more than 100 passengers when it burst into flames
- Footage taken from the runway showed the nose of the silver jet smashed to pieces as black smoke billowed from a fire burning on its left wing
- Other footage showed the plane skid on its belly across the runway, then collided with a communications tower, which exploded into flames
- The plane touched down at 5:38 p.m. Fire crews were dispatched at 5:39 p.m.
Passenger onboard a Dominican airline plane that crashed landed at Miami Airport on Tuesday recalls terrifying moments when the aircraft burst into flames.
‘We were bumping like side to side and all the windows like, break,’ passenger Paola Garcia told Wesh 2 news.
‘Everything’s fine and then people start running and running and running. And I like jump and I start running because it was fire and all that, and I thought it was going to explode,’ she said.
Garcia was one of more than 100 passengers that immediately fled the plane after its landing gear failed upon touchdown – she earlier told CBS News she thought she was ‘going to die.’
New footage has emerged showing the terrifying moment passengers begin exiting the plane in panic.
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Passenger Paola Garcia recalls running off the plane after the crash landing. Garcia said she thought the plane was ‘going to explode’
A passenger calmly exited the aircraft on an evacuation slide while others onboard screamed and shrieked in the background
Footage shows crew members helping passengers evacuate the flaming aircraft through an emergency exit
The video taken by a passenger as he escaped the aircraft through an emergency exit and down an evacuation slide shows crew members aiding in the crisis as some people shout to exit the plane and shriek in horror.
The footage shows smoke coming from the exterior back end of the plane while some passengers walk to safety.
The aircraft ripped through a small building and a communications tower while skidding on its belly across the tarmac before bursting into flames.
Smoke covered the exterior back end of the plane as passengers fled onto the runway to safety
‘The wheel on the left side, it blow away, and we felt like the airplane go to the left and it started shaking very, very hard and then the airplane went off the runway and we saw the flames,’ passenger Yamil Elneser told CBS News.
Three people were rushed to the hospital after the accident. The plane was carrying 126 passengers and 11 crew members.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the jet’s landing gear collapsed. It was part of a fleet owned by Red Air, a discount airline founded just last year in the Dominican Republic.
Footage taken from the runway showed the nose of the silver jet smashed to pieces as black smoke billowed from a fire burning on its left wing
Other footage showed the plane ski on its belly across the runway, then collide with the tower which exploded into flames
The communications array that the plane slid into can be seen wrapped around its right wing
Footage taken from the runway showed the nose of the silver jet smashed to pieces as black smoke billowed from a fire burning on its left wing.
The mangled metal of the communications tower could be seen wrapped around the burning wing.
Passengers could be seen frantically exiting the fuselage, screaming as they fled the wreckage.
Other footage showed the plane skid on its belly across the runway, then collide with the tower which exploded into flames.
The nose of the RED Air jet wash smashed apart when its landing gear failed upon touchdown.
Passengers could be seen frantically exiting the fuselage, screaming as they fled the wreckage
Passenger Balo Delgado said panic was quickly replaced by reassurance as he saw fire crews at work.
‘Panic, almost panic. it was a terrible experience, actually, but like I said I feel safe,’ he told CBS Miami, ‘It happened like one minute and then you could see all the officers through the window doing their jobs.’
Fire crews quickly arrived on the scene, dousing the burning wing with flame-retardant foam.
The aircraft was a part of the RED Air fleet, and had arrived in Miami from the Dominican Republic.
The plane touched down at 5:38pm. Fire crews were dispatched at 5:39pm, WPLG reported.
A spokesperson for Miami Airport said that flights were delayed due to the crash.
Fire crews dousing the burning airliner with flame-retardant foam after it skid to a halt on the runway
Fire crews attending to the crashed airliner that bust into flames at Miami Airport on Tuesday evening
The plane touched down at 5:38pm. Fire crews were dispatched at 5:39pm, WPLG reported
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