Holidaymakers were left shaken after a plane’s engine suddenly caught fire moments after take-off, forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing.
Passengers used the emergency slides to flee the aircraft after the left-side engine became engulfed in flames.
Flight attendants struggled to get some passengers – who wanted to see the flames – to sit down and put on their seat belts as terrified children cried.
Some of those on board said they have lost their desire to fly after the mid-air drama which was caught on camera.
All 202 passengers plus crew members were safely evacuated from the Red Wings Tu-204 jet at oil-rich Ufa, Russia.
Tourists on flight number 808 remained amazingly calm but filmed the alarming scene.
A source at Ufa’s airport said after the incident: “There were 202 passengers on board, no injuries reported.
“All firefighting and rescue units at the airport worked in line with the emergency plan.
“Passengers were evacuated with the help of inflatable emergency escape slides seven minutes after the landing.”
The plane was en route to Sochi, Russia’s premier summer seaside resort on the Black Sea, and it landed just after 5am local time on Wednesday.
Psychologists and airline representatives were reported to be working with shocked passengers.
The Russian-made plane is undergoing tests.
The airline was re-routing passengers to their destination with other services.
In one video showing the fire, voices are heard saying: “Wait, is it actually on fire? Yes! Really on fire, yes! Do you want me to film a video?”
A flight attendant then says: Take your seat!”
Later, one says: “Your seatbelt!”
A person asks: “Are we continuing to gain altitude?”
But a voice responds: “No, no, no, no, we are descending.”
One passenger then says: “It feels like my desire to fly left me, just a bit. Are you going on holiday?”
A fellow traveller responds: “Yes. It went off a long time ago.”
In a second video the crew insist on worried passengers taking their seats even when the aircraft is on the ground – and a clip after the emergency landing shows spray extinguishing the engine inferno.
One flight attendant says: “Don’t take your seatbelt off please.”
A passenger says: “Oh wow.”
But a cabin crew member then shouts: “Take your seats! Don’t stand up!”
Ufa is the capital of Russia’s Bashkortostan republic situated between the Volga River and the Urals mountains.
In December 2012 a Red Wings Tupolev TU-204-100В crashed at Vnukovo airport in Moscow killing five of the eight crew members on board.
Source: mirror
