Miami plane crash latest: ‘Miracle more not hurt’ aviation expert says as NTSB probe budget airline

A plane carrying 126 people caught fire after a landing gear failure caused it to slide across a runway at Miami International Airport on Tuesday evening (21 June).

PTZtv’s Miami Airport Cam showed the plane skidding through the tarmac before coming to stop in the grassy area.

First responders from the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue could be seen reaching the site of the crash as soon as the plane, carrying 126 passengers, came to a halt.

In the video shared with CBS News, at least three fire service units were seen approaching the Red Air flight as black smoke from the fire billowed into the sky.

Read the details in this report:

A 36-year-old mechanic from RED Air interviewed by the Miami Herald provided his first impressions about the landing of the plane on Tuesday night, which he describes as being a “hard landing”.

Hector Dejesus, employed by the airline and a former Dominican military aviation mechanic, first told a reporter from the Florida-based outlet that he thought perhaps there was a pilot error in the landing.

“I suppose it was a hard landing. We do maintenance all the time. I suppose it was that,” he told the Miami Herald. “I’m in shock. I would see things like this in the air force.”

An investigation into the crash is being handled by the National Transportation Safety Board, who told reporters they’d be sending a team of investigators to the incident site on Wednesday.

A passenger who was onboard RED Air Flight 203 when it crashed at the Miami International Airport described a “frightening” scene to local news outlet the Miami Herald.

“People were very frightened,” said Mauricio Davis, who was returning from Venezuela and grabbed a connecting flight in Santo Domingo to Miami.

“People were grabbing the seats to keep from spinning around,” he added, noting that when the 126 passengers travelling onboard realised there was fire, they collectively began screaming with panic.

Read more from the Miami Herald here.

One of the passengers travelling on board Red Air Flight 203 from Santo Domingo to Miami on Tuesday afternoon filmed the terrifying moments before he and other passengers made an emergency exit down the plane’s evacuation slide.

Paolo Delgado, who shared his cellphone footage with CBS Austin’s John-Carlos Estrada, can be seen fleeing the grounded plane while passengers ahead and behind him are heard hurriedly trying to get off the smoking airliner.

As Mr Delgado descends the emergency slide, a plume of black smoke can be seen wafting from the plane that he has just seconds ago escaped from.

The footage shows some passengers had stopped to collect luggage including wheeled suitcases before exiting the aircraft, against rules about evacuating in an emergency.

Watch the full clip below:

Just before 5.40pm on Tuesday, a Red Air flight arriving from the Dominican Republic had a landing gear failure upon arrival, sending a jet with 126 people sliding across runway nine at MIA.

The craft quickly caught fire, sending passengers running from the grounded jet, which was inbound from Santo Domingo.

A plane carrying 126 people caught fire when its landing gear collapsed on the runway at Miami International Airport, according to officials.

The dramatic incident took place when a Red Air flight arrived from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, said Miami-Dade Aviation Department spokesman Greg Chin.

Authorities said three people received minor injuries and were taken to the hospital for treatment. The remaining passengers were bussed from the site of the accident to the terminal.

A plane carrying 126 passengers caught fire when its landing gear failed at Miami International Airport on Tuesday, leaving passengers fleeing from the aircraft and many observers wondering about the airline that was operating the flight.

Red Air is one of the region’s newest airlines. The company, which is based in the Dominican Republic, launched in the fall of 2021 — looking to challenge other cut-rate airlines by offering relatively affordable flights between the US and the Caribbean country.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are expected to arrive at Miami International Airport on Wednesday to begin their probe of a Red Air flight after its landing gear collapsed on the runway and caused it to crash.

“NTSB is sending a team of investigators to Miami following today’s gear collapse and runway excursion of an MD-82 jetliner at Miami International Airport,” the investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accidents wrote on Tuesday night, just a few hours after the 5.40pm incident that sent RED Air Flight 203 into smoke.

Johanna Chisholm reports.

Passengers share the horrifying experience as they recounted the crash landing of their plane at Miami International Airport.

“I thought I was going to die,” Paola Garcia told 7 News. “All the windows were broken, and someone like, broke his leg and arm,” she said adding that she ran to the exit as soon as the plane came to a stop and made her way to the tarmac as black smoke billowed. “I started running and I jumped, and I thought it was going to explode.”

“I saw the fire, I saw the smoke. It was dark, actually,” said another fellow passenger Paolo Delgado. “Then there was like an apparent smell or something. People were like, screaming all around. I don’t know, like panic.”