FIRE SHOOTS OUT OF AIRPLANE ENGINE; PASSENGERS TOLD IT WAS “NORMAL”

Passengers aboard a UTair Airlines plane in Russia opened an emergency door and scampered out onto the wing after an engine burst into flames on the runway. Video captured by one of the passengers shows flames spewing from the Boeing (* There’s that word again!) 737’s engine before takeoff at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow. The three passengers – two men and a woman – claimed the flight attendants ignored their shouts of “fire” and the ensuing panic in the cabin, and instead told the passengers that the fire shooting out of the engine was “normal”. They persuaded the three people who opened the emergency door and jumped onto the wing to return to the cabin. Eventually, though, the airline transferred all the passengers onto another plane – except for the three passengers who had opened the emergency door. They were held for questioning. Afterwards, a representative for Utair Airlines said, “This was an ordinary situation, the plane was in order, passengers were in no danger,” adding that the flames were caused by disrupted airflow during engine startup.
* Yeah, the airflow was disrupted by a spray of leaking jet fuel.
* Fire shooting out of the engine. Happens all the time. That’s why you never hear about it, because it happens all the time. No big deal.
* “That’s how we keep the cabin warm when we’re up where it’s cold.”
* Then the wheels fell off.
* You have to admit, Boeing is having an exceptional second quarter.