15 Injured After Plane Fire At Ft. Lauderdale Airport

A Dynamic Airways plane caught on fire at Ft. Lauderdale airport Thursday afternoon, forcing the passengers on board to evacuate on slides and leaving 15 injured, including one seriously burned.

The Venezuela-bound plane caught fire while taxiing for departure at about 12:45 p.m. ET, the FAA said in a statement. The airline taxiing behind it reported a fuel leakage shortly before it caught fire, according to the FAA.

The passengers evacuated the plane on slides, the FAA said.

In an on-site meeting with reporters, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office told reporters that 15 of the 101 passengers were taken to the hospital, one with serious burns. The injuries were not life-threatening, the sheriff’s office said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a four-person team to investigate the fire, and Boeing said it would provide technical assistance to the investigation. The jet was a Boeing 767.

The airport was closed following the incident but reopened at 3:15.

Image via Chris Dick on Twitter.

Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the plane as an Air Canada plane. It was Dynamic Airways. Patch regrets the error.