A Frontier Airlines jet caught fire after the pilots smelled smoke in the cockpit, and regulators are investigating
- A Frontier Airlines flight from San Diego caught fire as it landed in Las Vegas.
- The pilots had earlier detected smoke in the cockpit, the FAA said.
A Frontier Airlines plane with nearly 200 people on board caught fire upon landing, sparking an investigation by safety regulators.
The Airbus A321 was arriving in Las Vegas from San Diego on Saturday when the crew detected smoke in the cockpit and declared an emergency, according to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration.
An audio recording from LiveATC.net also appears to show the plane had communication issues.
The air traffic controller told the pilots to respond to his instructions using the IDENT button — a feature on the transponder that makes the plane stand out on the radar — as they couldn't reply verbally.
"They're unable to transmit," the controller later said.
After landing, the controller said there was a fire in the Frontier jet's right engine.
A video taken by a witness appears to show flames coming from the landing gear before emergency vehicles attended the plane.
The FAA said a fire around the right engine was extinguished.
All 190 passengers and seven crew were evacuated via airstairs with no injuries before being taken by bus to the terminal, Frontier said in a statement.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are now investigating the incident.
This wasn't the only plane to catch fire in the past week.
A Ryanair Boeing 737 Max suffered an engine fire as it taxied on a runway in Brindisi, Italy on Thursday.
Two days before that, another Ryanair plane's tires burst upon landing and damaged the runway at Milan Bergamo Airport in Italy.