Passengers flee to safety as Peru plane catches fire

LIMA, Peru – A Peruvian Airlines jet liner caught fire seconds after crash-landing at an airport in Peru but all 141 passengers on board escaped unhurt, authorities said.

Footage aired by RPP television showed black smoke pouring from the Boeing 737 next to a runway at Jaujua airport in the center of the country on Tuesday, March 28.

The aircraft was eventually reduced to a charred shell.

“Thank God we were saved, we got out fine,” said one of the passengers, Walter Montoya, on RPP’s radio station.

“The pilot did an emergency landing and there was a heavy impact.”

The airline said in a statement that “the 141 passengers on board were evacuated by our crew. No passenger was hurt in any considerable way.”

It added: “The pilot’s skill… avoided greater misfortune.”

It said the airline and authorities were investigating.

The head of the transport ministry’s civil aviation authority Juan Carlos Pavic said on the radio that the fire broke out when the plane’s right wing touched the ground on landing.

Regional police chief Jose Cueva told RPP the plane suffered a technical fault in a landing gear. – Rappler.com