Fire destroys Air Busan plane at South Korean Airport

An Air Busan plane caught fire at an airport in Busan, South Korea, on Tuesday night, forcing all passengers and crew members to evacuate, officials said. The plane, an Airbus A321, had been scheduled to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport, fire officials said, when a fire broke out near its tail at around 10:30 p.m., before takeoff. All 176 people on board — 169 passengers, six flight attendants and a flight engineer — escaped through evacuation slides, South Korea’s Transport Ministry said in a statement. Some minor injuries were reported, and at least two of the passengers were hospitalized with bruises they suffered while evacuating, the Transport Ministry said. Videos and photos of the blaze broadcast on local media showed fire engines battling flames on the plane’s fuselage as smoke billowed off the aircraft. The aircraft’s inflatable evacuation slides were deployed. Around 11:30 p.m., the fire was extinguished, the fire department said. It was not immediately clear what had caused the blaze. Investigators from the Transport Ministry and its Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board will investigate the matter, the ministry said. Air Busan, a low-cost carrier that operates domestic and international flights to and from Busan, is a subsidiary of Asiana Airlines, one of South Korea’s two main airlines. The plane had arrived in Busan from Jeju just before 9 p.m. local time, according to Flightradar24, a flight tracking service.<br/>