Wild Video Captures Flames Exploding From Cargo Plane Mid-Air
An Atlas Air cargo flight was forced to make an emergency landing at Miami International Airport this week after an engine caught on fire in mid-air, and the terrifying ordeal was all caught on video by a bystander.
The video was posted to Instagram by the Only in Dade “citizen’s journalism account,” which is dedicated to finding “the good, the bad, and the funny” in Miami-Dade County. “Footage shows a plane appearing to trail sparks while flying above Miami!” the account captioned the short video. “The airplane has reportedly landed safely at MIA according to the person who recorded the video.”
NBC6 South Florida reported that the station received mayday calls that the cargo plane made to air traffic control. “Mayday, mayday … We have an engine fire,” the audio recording could be heard saying. “Request access back to the airport. No, we’ll go ahead and land. We have five souls onboard.”
Shortly after the pane landed with all five crew members ostensibly unharmed, Atlas Air issued a statement confirming that the cargo aircraft Flight 5Y095 “landed safely after experiencing an engine malfunction soon after departure from MIA.”
“The crew followed all standard procedures and safely returned to MIA,” the statement said. “At Atlas, safety is always our top priority and we will be conducting a thorough inspection to determine the cause.”
The cause of the fire is currently unclear. But the incident marks the second scary in-flight malfunction this month. On Jan. 5, an Alaska Airlines flight had to turn around shortly after departing from Portland, OR after a section of the fuselage separated from the plane when a door plug blew out, causing uncontrolled decompression onboard. Though there were minor injuries reported, all 171 passengers and six crew members likewise survived the scary incident.
