(WFLA) — Amature video captured the moment a passenger jet burst into flames while crash-landing at Miami International Airport on Tuesday.
A Red Air flight from the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo had 126 passengers on board when the plane’s landing gear collapsed on touch-down. Only three people suffered minor injuries and sought medical attention, officials said.
Fire crews were quick to extinguish the flames as passengers evacuated the burning plane.
“I thought I was going to die actually,” 18-year-old Paola Garcia told NBC 6. “I had an old man next to me, and I was hugging him. Horrible – it was horrible.”
Footage from the scene showed the plane being smothered by fire-fighting foam from airport firetrucks.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava happened to be landing at the airport on a different flight around the same time and saw the immediate aftermath of the crash.
“The plane landed, apparently a tire burst and then it went back up and came back down and the landing was so hard that the entire landing apparatus was destroyed and the belly of the plane is on the ground,” Levine Cava told reporters. “Immediately when I deplaned I went to see for myself and of course what happened here is a miracle.”
The aircraft’s front landing gear collapsed, causing the fire Miami International Airport said.
“Fire crews have placed the fire under control and are mitigating fuel spillage,” the department local fire crews tweeted.
Cellphone video from inside the cabin, obtained by NBC Miami, showed people scrambling for the exits and rushing down inflatable slides.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced a team would arrive at the airport by Wednesday to investigate the incident.
