– ‘Gathering more information’ –
McCarran Airport said traffic on runway number three, where the incident took place, had been suspended but flights were operating normally from the three other runways.
Passengers from the stricken plane were taken to a hotel near the Las Vegas strip for the night while awaiting another flight to their destination.
“We’re aware of the incident at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas,” Boeing said in a statement. “Our teams are currently gathering more information.”
In 2014, a British Airways plane heading to Lyon, France, was forced to turn back to London’s Heathrow Airport after a witness saw flames “spitting” out of the engine on takeoff.
Richard Aboulafia, an aviation expert at Teal Group, said he did not believe Tuesday’s fire was linked to any flaws with the Boeing 777.
“The 777 remains one of the safest forms of transport ever invented,” he told AFP. “While we don’t know about this incident, there have been no significant 777 crashes or fires that resulted from flaws with the aircraft.”
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