was a boeing plane
EDIT: Airbus this time hmmm....
"If Air Busan had not been delayed, a fire could have broken out after takeoff... Another major disaster narrowly avoided."
On the night of the 28th, an Air Busan aircraft carrying 170 passengers caught fire on the ground at Gimhae Airport after its departure was delayed.
It was a terrifying situation, as the fire could have broken out after takeoff if the departure had not been delayed.
According to the Busan Fire Department on the 29th, at around 10:15 PM the previous day, a report was received that a fire had broken out inside the tail section of Air Busan flight BX391, which was preparing for takeoff from the apron at Gimhae Airport with 170 passengers and six crew members on board for its flight to Hong Kong.
Passengers on board at the time recalled that the fire occurred even before the reported time of the emergency call. According to one passenger who witnessed the situation inside the aircraft, the scheduled departure time was 9:55 PM, and by then, the cabin doors had already been closed. The flight attendants had also completed their safety instructions. Then, an onboard announcement informed them that departure would be delayed by about 20 minutes. The passenger recalled, “I remember the announcement saying that the flight was delayed by 20 minutes due to spacing with the preceding aircraft. About five minutes after hearing that announcement, the fire broke out.” The passenger estimated the time to be around 10:05 PM.
The fire is believed to have started in the overhead luggage compartment on the left side, just in front of where this passenger was seated. The passenger stated, “Thinking about how the fire could have started after takeoff if there had been no delay is terrifying. I inhaled about three deep breaths of smoke while evacuating, and I immediately felt tightness in my chest.”
As the fire broke out, the cabin quickly descended into chaos. There were two emergency exits at the tail section. A passenger opened the left-side exit, while a flight attendant opened the right-side exit, according to another passenger. A passenger seated in the 30s row recalled, “A flight attendant seemed to have opened the door incorrectly, closed it again, and then reopened it.”
A couple in their 30s who were seated near the smoking compartment stated, “When smoke started coming out, a flight attendant asked, ‘Did you put anything in there?’ Then suddenly, the smoke spread rapidly.”
A passenger in their 40s described, “At first, I saw flames seeping out through the cracks of the luggage compartment door. I tried to open the door to put out the fire, but the flight attendant told me not to, so I didn’t. Then, passengers started screaming and pushing to get out.”
Another passenger seated near the front of the aircraft recalled, “Everyone was seated with their seatbelts fastened when someone in the back yelled, ‘Fire!’ There was no separate fire announcement, and the smoke spread all the way to the front.”
According to Yonhap News on the 29th, a passenger seated at the rear of the Air Busan aircraft reported to the media, "I heard a crackling sound coming from the overhead luggage compartment, and shortly after, smoke began to appear." Regarding the source of the sound, the passenger speculated, "It was probably a power bank or an electronic device."
The passenger continued, "A flight attendant told us to 'stay seated' and came with a fire extinguisher, but by then, the cabin was already filled with smoke, and sparks were falling from the overhead bin." As the smoke thickened, "A passenger seated next to the emergency exit opened the gate, and the flight attendant opened the opposite gate, allowing passengers to evacuate." The passenger described the situation as "extremely chaotic and frightening."
There are also testimonies that the flight attendants were slow in guiding passengers through the emergency exit. In an interview with YTN, a female passenger stated, "I was sitting near the emergency exit and asked them to open the door, but they didn't. People kept shouting for them to open it, and only after that did the evacuation slide deploy, allowing everyone to escape one by one."
A couple in their 30s, who were seated near the overhead compartment where the smoke originated, recalled, "When the smoke appeared, a flight attendant asked, 'Did you put something inside?' But then, all of a sudden, the smoke spread rapidly."
A passenger in their 40s added, "At first, I saw the fire seeping out between the overhead bin doors. I tried to open it to put out the fire, but the flight attendant told me not to. Meanwhile, passengers started shouting and pushing to get out, causing chaos."
A passenger seated at the front of the aircraft stated, "After all the passengers had taken their seats and fastened their seatbelts, we suddenly heard someone from the back shouting, 'Fire!'" The passenger added, "There was no separate announcement about the fire, and the smoke quickly spread toward the front."
Some passengers criticized the a1rline’s response. A pregnant passenger remarked, "After incidents like the Sewol ferry disaster and the recent Jeju Air accident, I couldn’t understand why the flight attendants were just telling us to stay seated while trying to use a fire extinguisher." She continued, "They didn’t instruct passengers near the fire to evacuate, nor did they tell people to leave their belongings behind. As a result, there was chaos, with some passengers trying to grab their luggage while others were attempting to escape."
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