A Tibet Airlines plane caught fire early Thursday morning at China’s Chongqing Airport in the southwest of the country after leaving the runway, the airline said. All passengers and crew were evacuated and the accident left no serious injuries or deaths.
The flight, with 113 passengers and 9 crew, was heading from Chongqing to the Tibetan city of Nyingchi when the crew noticed irregularities and suspended takeoff, causing the aircraft to veer off the runway and causing the fire, the company said.
Footage shared by Chinese state media showed flames spreading across the plane’s wing as frightened passengers fled the scene.
“All passengers and crew have been safely evacuated,” Tibet Airlines said in a statement. “The injured passengers suffered only minor injuries and were sent to hospital for treatment,” he added.
The incident comes weeks after a China Eastern flight between Kunming and Guangzhou inexplicably fell more than 8,000 meters and crashed into a mountainside, killing all 132 people on board.
So far, no explanation has been offered for this disaster, the deadliest in 30 years in Chinese aviation.
