Terrifying moment plane is engulfed by flames on runway with fire seen spewing from aircraft after ‘hard landing’
DRAMATIC footage has captured the moment a passenger jet caught fire after making a hard landing.
Flames spewed from underneath the Frontier plane, and smoke billowed into the air before the aircraft stopped on the runway at Las Vegas airport on Saturday.
Around 190 passengers and seven cabin crew were on the plane that had taken off from San Diego.
Pilots declared an emergency after receiving reports of smoke during the landing process, a Frontier spokesperson posted on X.
The crew reportedly went silent at the moment leading up to the hard touchdown, as reported by NBC.
Cell phone footage, uploaded to X, captured the moment the plane hit the runway in Las Vegas.
The video showed bright orange flames shooting from underneath the plane.
Smoke was seen coming from the aircraft before it came to a halt.
It turned out that the plane’s four tires were blown out.
Fire crews were scrambled to the plane to put out the blaze, and all passengers and cabin crew were evacuated.
Travelers have since spoken out about the ordeal and described the impact of the landing.
Lucas Shook told the Today Show the plane dropped several times before it touched down at Harry Reid International.
He said that he and fellow traveler Alondra Soto were left with back pain.
Soto admitted she felt scared while on board.
Passengers feared for their lives as the chaos unfolded.
“Honestly, I thought that we were going to explode because we saw the fire, and we didn’t know why,” Jose Mena told the ABC affiliate KTNV-TV.
Frontier Airlines full statement
Frontier Airlines issued a statement after a plane heading to Las Vegas made a hard landing on Saturday. The company's statement in full:
“As Flight 1326 from San Diego to Las Vegas was in the process of landing at LAS this afternoon at approximately 3.15p PT, the pilots detected smoke and declared an emergency.
“The aircraft landed safely and all passengers and crew were evacuated via airstairs.
“No injuries were reported, and passengers have been bussed to the terminal.
“There were a total of 190 passengers and 7 crew members on board.
“The cause of the incident is currently under investigation.”
Source: Frontier Airlines
He said the cabin felt hot and claimed the temperature inside rocketed to around 100F.
Mena said a child burst into tears before revealing his family had been left traumatized.
Fellow traveler Kevin Joseif told KTNV-TV that the landing was hard before the plane shook.
Officials revealed no one was injured, and Federal Aviation Administration bosses have launched a probe.
A Frontier spokesperson told NBC all passengers are being refunded.
The flight scare comes just weeks after a JetBlue plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Kansas.
Flight map data showed the aircraft plunging around 30,000 feet in 10 minutes.
And in September, a Delta plane heading to Oregon suffered pressurization issues, and passengers were left with bloody noses.
Delta bosses told The U.S. Sun that the aircraft couldn’t deploy oxygen masks.