Las Vegas-bound Southwest flight grounded due to engine fire

A Southwest flight departing from Lubbock, Texas, returned to the gate shortly after abandoning its takeoff roll when the flight crew reported a attainable engine hearth, in line with a press release from Lubbock Preston Smith Worldwide Airport.

Lubbock Hearth Rescue responded to stories of an engine failure and hearth on Thursday and mentioned crews have been engaged on “extinguishment operations.”

The flight was getting ready to depart for Las Vegas however returned to the gate earlier than take-off, in line with the airline.

Lisa Powell, a passenger on the flight who spoke with ABC Information’ native station KABC, mentioned, “We had gotten to the acceleration a part of take-off, about to carry off, and you may hear a ‘thump’ and the airplane swerved and we got here to a cease.”

“It did not appear scary. We thought a tire had blown out … however the pilot got here on and mentioned, ‘The engine had ingested one thing, and a flame had come out,'” Powell informed KABC.

She mentioned they needed to wait about 10 minutes whereas the hearth division cooled the brakes down earlier than heading again to the gate.

The airplane was in a position to return to the gate utilizing its personal energy, the town mentioned.

The airport mentioned in a press release all passengers have been in a position to safely deplane and return to the terminal whereas Southwest labored to accommodate prospects and get them on one other plane.

As of seven p.m. native time, runway 17R was closed for cleansing and inspection, in line with the town.

LFR mentioned there weren’t any reported accidents.

The engine hearth comes simply someday after a Southwest flight made an emergency touchdown in Tampa Bay, Florida, as a consequence of extreme turbulence over the Gulf of Mexico, leading to two folks needing medical consideration.