A plane operated by German budget carrier Condor and bound for Düsseldorf, with 273 passengers and eight crew, had a terrifying ordeal Saturday night when the aircraft’s right engine caught fire shortly after takeoff from Corfu, Greece. A Boeing 757-300 aircraft made an emergency landing in Brindisi, Italy, about an hour after departure.
A terrifying video of the fire breaking out mid-air has been widely shared online.
One particularly chilling 18-second clip shows sparks shooting from the right side of the fuselage, resembling the flicker of a cigarette lighter struggling to ignite — a scene that continues for 15 seconds.
According to the news reports, the pilot shut down the faulty engine and tried to return to Corfu before deciding to continue with only the other one still operational. Eventually, it landed in Brindisi, reported.
Condor apologised for the inconvenience caused to passengers, who had to spend the night at the airport due to a shortage of hotels in the town. They were flown to Düsseldorf the following day.
The Boeing 757 is one of the oldest-serving passenger plane models – and nicknamed ‘Atari Ferrari’ – in the world and is now in its fifth decade of active service.
Earlier, on June 12, a London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner operated by Air India crashed just seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad. Of the 272 people on board, all but one lost their lives, along with 19 others on the ground, after the aircraft suddenly lost altitude and crashed into a hostel.
Source: News18