299 Leave Jet Safely After Fire in Engine
NEW YORK — An engine caught on fire Saturday on an Eastern Airlines jetliner with 299 passengers aboard, forcing the passengers to take another plane to Miami, officials said.
No one was injured in the incident involving Flight 977, and the fire on the Lockheed L-1011 Tristar was extinguished in two minutes, authorities said.
The passengers left the plane by its normal exits after John F. Kennedy International Airport ground crews put out the flames, Eastern spokesman Joe Scott said.
“The flight crew was unable to start the tail engine . . . . When it kicked, there was too much fuel there, like a flooded carburetor on a car, and it started on fire,” Scott said.
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