A fire broke out on an Airbus plane at Gimhae International Airport in South Korea on Tuesday night, just before it was scheduled to take off for Hong Kong. The fire started in the back of the aircraft, which had 169 passengers, six crew members, and one engineer on board. Thankfully, all of them were safely evacuated using escape slides, as reported by the transportation ministry.
During the evacuation, three people suffered minor injuries, according to the national fire control agency. Firefighters quickly responded, and the fire was fully controlled by 11:31 p.m. local time, approximately one hour after being called to the scene. The cause of the fire remains unknown, and the plane was confirmed to be an A321 model.
This incident follows a tragic crash at Muan International Airport in southern South Korea, where a Jeju Air plane went down last month, killing all but two of the 181 people on board. The plane, a Boeing 737-800, slid off the runway and struck a concrete structure after its landing gear failed to deploy. The flight had returned from Bangkok, and except for two Thai citizens, all victims were South Korean. Initial reports confirmed that birds had struck the engine, but the investigation into the cause continues.