A live streaming webcam captured the moments when a jetliner from Red Air Flight crash-landed and caught fire on a Miami International Airport runway on Tuesday.
PTZtv’s Miami Airport Cam showed the plane skidding through the tarmac before coming to stop in the grassy area.
First responders from the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue could be seen reaching the site of the crash as soon as the plane, carrying 126 passengers, came to a halt. At least seven passengers travelling on the plane from Santo Domingo to Miami were injured in the incident, according to local media reports.
In the video shared with CBS News, at least three fire service units were seen approaching the Red Air flight as black smoke from the fire billowed into the sky.
The edited 2 minutes and 12 seconds long video ended with a fire fighting unit standing beside the wreckage of Red Air Flight 203, with that side blackened from the crash.
The plane remains on the runway almost a day after the incident, which sent more than a hundred passengers fleeing from the smoking airliner’s cabin.
Federal investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are attempting to determine the cause behind the landing gear collapse that led to the crash.
The incident is also being investigated by the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute, Red Air said in a statement.
The Dominican Republic-based airline, which opened up late last year among a flurry of other discount carriers launching in the region, said in a statement that the plane “had technical difficulties after landing at the Miami International Airport”, but has yet to offer further information.
According to CNN affiliate WSVN, when the airliner’s landing gear had failed, it began to skid across the runway and collided with several objects in its path before veering off between the taxiway and the runway. The plane managed to take out a small building in the area and a crane tower, which was later seen wrapped around the aircraft’s smoking right wing.
Video footage from the fiery crash was shared promptly on social media, as terrified passengers spoke to news outlets describing their harrowing brush with death.
“This could be my last time, and then I just went down,” said one passenger in an interview with WSVN.
Another, Paola Garcia, said: “I thought I was going to die”.
“All the windows were broken, and someone like, broke his leg and arm. Horrible”.
