A 767 caught fire on the taxiway just prior to departure from Ft. Lauderdale on Thursday afternoon. The aircraft, operated by Dynamic Air, was scheduled to fly to Caracas and had 90 passengers and 11 crew on board who all evacuated. Minor injuries were reported as part of the evacuation but, for the most part, everyone appears to be okay. Except the company and the airplane.
The plane has massive damage and likely will be a write off. It is old and almost certainly not worth repairing at this point. As for the company, well, the official statement it sent out some 7 hours after the incident is laughable at best:
After today’s engine problem that prevented on time departure of Dynamic’s Fort Lauderdale to Caracas flight 2D 0405, airline has successfully organized subservice with partner airline in order to assure passengers are protected to their final destination.
Yes, just a small engine problem which prevented an on time departure. Also known as an engine bursting into flames necessitating an evacuation and interrupting air traffic in South Florida for several hours. What a joke. That’s crisis comms handled badly. So was much of the early response, like the claim that it “safely diverted” rather than catching fire.
Dynamic International Airways flight safely diverted. Flights continue per schedule Oct 30 2015
— Dynamic Intl Airways (@flyairdynamic) October 29, 2015
At least the statement in Spanish acknowledges that the plane had a “technical fault” requiring evacuation.
https://twitter.com/flyairdynamic/status/659892445723926528
But is also still has a pinned tweet advertising service from Caracas to New York, theoretically on that plane which is sitting in Ft. Lauderdale cooling off from this afternoon’s “problem that prevented on time departure.” (Though, in reality, the company does appear to own or lease a few other aircraft.
Not especially impressive, at least not in a good way.
Oh, and the company seems to thing that passengers are going to be ready to just hop on another plane to fly, despite their bags being still inside the old one. I’m guessing very few take them up on the offer, though getting the Caracas-originating travelers moving is probably the main purpose of the recovery flight.
Some more photos and coverage of the fire from WSVN’s twitter account below. Props to their helicopter for already being in the air covering a different story and getting to this one spectacularly quickly.
Here's a close up of the Boeing 767 on fire at @FLLFlyer pic.twitter.com/vaxZFJJ9lj
— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) October 29, 2015
#UPDATE: Dynamic Airways Flight 405 was scheduled to depart to Caracas, Venezuela. https://t.co/1KVWYfaJHh
— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) October 29, 2015
#BREAKING: A plane is on fire at Fort Lauderdale International airport. 7News is LIVE: https://t.co/CxgOaUEz9k
— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) October 29, 2015
WATCH: Full video of news conference regarding plane fire at @FLLFlyer airport. @BrowardSheriff https://t.co/UuxriCUq5P
— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) October 29, 2015
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Having dealt with Dynamic in the past, a 7 hour delay to realise what was actually going on is actually an improvement for them. These guys barely know which end of the plane points up.
Happened to be at FLL yesterday and stopped by the Dynamic Air gates. Another 3ish hour delay and general apathy at the gate, right up until I offered them some Halloween candy.