Plane lands at Sea-Tac with burning engine
Plane lands at Sea-Tac with burning engine
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
By SAM SKOLNIK
P-I REPORTER
One of the engines on a US Airways flight into Sea-Tac Airport caught fire Tuesday evening as it started to descend, an airport spokesman confirmed. No one was injured.
A bird was sucked into the right engine of the Airbus A319 near Seattle, said airport spokesman Bob Parker. But the pilot only noticed only a small vibration at the time and did not request an emergency landing "because he never really knew what was going on," Parker said.
Some of the passengers in the rear of the plane -- US Airways Flight 59 from Charlotte, N.C. -- noticed the flames and alerted the plane's crew. Parker said he didn't know exactly when that occurred.
The plane landed normally, said Parker, and the pilot taxied the plane to its intended gate.
Port of Seattle firefighters, alerted to the fire by callers on the ground who saw the flames in the Des Moines area, had prepared to respond to a fully engaged fire on the tarmac. Instead, they found the plane already at the gate, he said.
According to US Airways' Web site, Flight 59 landed at Sea-Tac at 8:39 p.m., 13 minutes behind schedule. The flight originated in Boston.
