Miami: 3 hospitalized after commercial plane landing gear collapsed at Miami International Airport, sparking small fire
The flight was arriving from Santo Domingo at 5:30 p.m. when the gear collapsed and caused a fire.
Chin said 126 passengers were on board. Three people were taken to a hospital with minor injuries, he said.
“I thought I was going to die,” Garcia said.
The plane’s windows broke, and there was fire, passengers told WSVN.
Dominican Republic-based airline Red Air said in a statement there were 130 passengers and 10 crew members on the aircraft. It’s unclear why there’s a discrepancy in the number of people who were on the plane.
When fire crews arrived on scene, they saw the wing of the aircraft was on fire, said Erika Benitez, a spokesperson for Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue.
Crews used specialized foam trucks and conducted a primary search to ensure all passengers were off the aircraft.
Crews also worked to mitigate fuel spillage, Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue said.
The airline said the plane “had technical difficulties after landing at the Miami International Airport (MIA),” but did not provide further details about the incident.
“At RED Air we express our absolute solidarity with the passengers and crew of the aircraft,” the company said in the statement.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, and it will send a team of investigators to the incident site Wednesday. The Dominican Civil Aviation Institute is also investigating and working with Miami authorities, Red Air said.
CNN’s Abel Alvarado contributed to this report.
