British Airways flight caught fire on the tarmac of Las Vegas airport

FLIGHT BA2276 bound for London Gatwick caught fire on the tarmac of Las Vegas McCarran International airport, yesterday afternoon September 8, but happily all passengers and crew were evacuated quickly.

A spokesman for the US Federal Aviation Administration stated that the left engine of the British Airways Boeing 777, which was carrying 159 passengers and 13 crew, caught fire.

Guardian newspaper journalist Jacob Steinberg who was a passenger on the flight reported that the pilot told passengers that the accident was the result of a “catastrophic failure of the engine”.

All 172 people were evacuated via inflatable shutes and ironically, the few injuries sustained were caused during the evacuation.

According to tweets from airport authorities, “Received first call at 4:13 PM (23:13 GMT); flames were spotted at 4:14, and by 4:14 response was under way.”

It added: “@LASairport had the fire out and all passengers off BA flight by 4:18 PM – excellent work by our ARFF team.”

Officials also said one runway was shut down, but three others continued to operate.

An investigation will now be carried out to try to identify the cause of the fire.