ATLANTA,None — A Delta jet carrying dozens of passengers made a hard landing at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport late Saturday afternoon and started on fire.
Passengers described the situation as scary but orderly.
Flight 2284 was flying in from Pittsburgh. Passengers were told the plane blew a tire upon landing. Delta officials said they can't confirm that at this point, but did confirm the brakes on the MD88 airplane overheated on the taxiway, starting a fire.
"I just thought we need to get off the plane. They kept telling us they were assessing the situation, and then I think the fire broke out. They opened the doors and we all went down the emergency chutes," passenger Kathlene Harrison said.
The 43 passengers and five crew members had to be evacuated the plane and were bussed back to the terminal.
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"The slide was more scarier than I thought it would be. It was steeper of a drop, and actually the guy who slid down the slide right in front of me slid down and actually kind of wiped out," passenger Tyler Barker said. "The paramedics took a look at him, but he said he said that he didn't feel he needed to go to the hospital or anything."
Passengers said a few people received bumps and bruises from the incident, but no one was seriously hurt.
"It almost felt like you were on a rumble strip when you are in a car, and paying attention to it, it took a little longer to slow down," passenger Peter Gitnik said,
"And then you started to smell rubber. And then the cabin got smoky. And the attendant came on and said the captain has everything under control and all of a sudden we took a very short stop," passenger Mary Lou Ruffin said.
The plane is now being examined at a maintenance facility.
Passengers are just thankful it stopped safely.
"I'm just thankful everybody's safe and OK, and you just have to thank God for that," Baker said.
Witnessing The Fire
A Birmingham, Ala. family got an up-close view of a the Delta jet as it caught on fire.
The Newton family said on visits to Atlanta, they like to stay at the Renaissance Concourse Hotel specifically so they can watch planes land and takeoff from the world's busiest airport.
On Saturday, they got to see something they didn't expect.
"At that point I was just basically saying a prayer for the folks," Dustin Newton told Channel 2‘s Tony Thomas. "It's kind of one of those 'This can't be happening. This is surreal.'"
Dustin's daughter Megan was sitting out on the balcony when the plane came in. The family said they first noticed a plane appear to abort a landing, then the MD88 touched down.
"It sounded almost like a bomb, and it just started billowing out smoke. I was just going ‘Please, God, don't let it be catastrophic,'" Megan said as she still sat on the balcony overlooking the runways.
"We heard the boom and we all started running," Dustin added.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen told the Associated Press the MD88 jet suffered either a blown tire, a locked-up brake or perhaps both, which caused a fire.
Atlanta firefighters extinguished the blaze in less than a minute after they arrived.
For the Newton family, it was more than they really wanted to see.
"Nothing quite stops your heart like coming out, seeing a plane smoking, then catching on fire and slide to a stop and smoke," Dustin said.
And luckily for this family, they had already planned to drive back to Birmingham.
"After witnessing that, I'm still shaky, and I think I'd have to think twice before getting on a plane," Megan said.
WSBTV
