Passengers and crew evacuated as plane catches fire on South Korean runway

An Airbus aircraft caught fire at an airport in South Korea on Tuesday evening, forcing the evacuation of all 176 people on board.

The fire, which started in the tail section of the Airbus A321 as it was preparing to take off at the Gimhae international airport in Busan, led to seven people suffering injuries, according to the state news agency Yonhap.

The Air Busan flight was bound for Hong Kong.

Four of the injured were crew members who experienced chest discomfort from smoke inhalation. The other three were passengers, including a woman in her 70s and two individuals in their 50s, who reported pain in their tailbones and backs.

Firefighters quickly responded to the plane, containing the blaze that had spread to the fuselage. The National Fire Agency said in a statement the fire was fully extinguished at 11.31pm local time on Tuesday, about an hour after firefighters and fire trucks were deployed to the scene.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

The Gimhae airport resumed normal operations on Wednesday, with all 279 scheduled flights running as planned except for eight Air Busan flights that were cancelled.

Air Busan is a budget carrier affiliated with Asiana Airlines, which was acquired by Korean Air in December.

The Independent has reached out to Air Busan for comment.

The incident came less than a month after a deadly plane crash at the Muan international airport killed 179 people.

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Footage showed the Jeju Air plane skidding on the runway after its landing gear failed to deploy, crashing into a concrete wall and catching fire.

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Only two crew members seated near the rear of the Boeing 737-800 jet survived the crash of the aircraft, which had arrived from Bangkok.

Among the passengers were five children under 10, including a three-year-old.

The preliminary investigation report, released on Monday, indicated that bird strikes played a role in the crash, but didn’t make any conclusions about the cause of the accident.