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NTSB preliminary report details fiery but safe emergency landing of Frontier Airlines plane
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NTSB preliminary report details fiery but safe emergency landing of Frontier Airlines plane

LAS VEGAS– Federal investigators say an electrical system malfunctioned on a Frontier Airlines plane, disabling the autopilot and knocking out some radio communications shortly before pilots made a fiery but safe emergency landing in Las Vegas earlier this month.

No one among the 190 passengers and seven crew members on Flight 1326, which departed from San Diego on Oct. 5, was injured, according to a preliminary report released Monday by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Federal investigators said crew members detected burning tire smoke, chemical or light smoke, the cockpit crew wore oxygen masks and declared an emergency about 19 minutes before the plane landed. The NTSB said the displays, radio and transponders stopped working while the pilot and co-pilot conducted emergency procedures.

Eyewitnesses reported flames and tires bursting on the Airbus A321-211 plane. while descending According to the report, a cloud of smoke formed on the runway at Harry Reid International Airport at 15:10. However, with the intervention of fire brigades, the fire was extinguished in a short time. Passengers were not evacuated immediately.

Video recordings and photographs included in the report showed fire and smoke coming out of the main landing gear of the plane before it stopped on the runway. The report stated that the damage was limited to the landing gear, wheels, tires and brakes.

Crew members said they were surprised to learn from firefighters that the fire was extinguished on the correct engine. “There was no sign of an engine fire in the cockpit,” the report said.

According to the report, aircraft data monitors detected a malfunction in a fan cooling the aircraft control systems at the time the odor was detected.

The flight data recorder stopped recording approximately nine minutes before the aircraft landed after electrical power was lost in accordance with emergency procedures, but the cockpit voice recorder remained operational. Both devices are being investigated by the NTSB in Washington. The final report may take approximately one year to complete.

KLAS-TV in Las Vegas reported He said several passengers filed a lawsuit against Frontier Airlines, claiming they were “trapped inside the oppressive smoke-filled plane for almost an hour” before the passengers were evacuated.