A passenger plane caught
fire before skidding off the runway while attempting an emergency landing in
the Andes.
The right wing of the
Peruvian Airlines jet broke starting a fire, according to local media in South
America.
The Boeing 737-300, which
was travelling from Lima, was forced to make an emergency landing at a small
airport in Jauja after authorities were alerted.
The aircraft skidded off
the runway as it touched down on Tuesday.
All 141 people on board
were able to escape the jet before the fire spread to the fuselage, the airline
said.
No major injuries were
reported.
Authorities are
investigating the incident, which occurred about 4.30pm at the high-altitude
airport in an agricultural valley some 265 kilometers from Lima, the capital.
The fire likely started
when the wing scraped the runway, Interior Minister Carlos Basombrio said.
"The plane couldn't
stop on the runway and they made a maneuver to stop it with the wing and that
appears to have caused the fire," Basombrio told reporters.
Television images showed a
large cloud of black smoke streaming from an airliner in flames.
Authorities have launched
an investigation into what caused the fire on the commercial plane.
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