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‘It was the end’: Video shows passengers panic as US plane catches fire, landing wheel breaks off
A Frontier Airlines flight to Puerto Rico faced a terrifying landing attempt after a wheel broke off and the plane caught fire.
Passengers aboard a Florida flight feared the worst after their plane appeared to catch fire in air and lost one of its wheels during a hard landing. The scary moments were captured on camera by terrified flyers onboard a Frontier Airlines flight who claimed they thought “it was the end” when the wheel broke off, the New York Post reported.
The flight was about to land in Puerto Rico with 228 passengers on April 15 when it touched down and then quickly climbed back up. The first landing attempt led to a mechanical problem after which one of the wheels tore off the Airbus A321.
“We were landing and the landing was very bad, aggressive and at a high speed, this caused one of the tires on the front of the plane to break and catch fire,” Melani Gonzalez Wharton wrote on Facebook, who was flying back home after a vacation with her family.
She said that the family and other passengers thought this was the end of their lives. "For a few minutes I thought it was the end of our story here on earth,” she said in her post. She shared the view out the window seat, showing a bright yellow glow and streaks of smoke under the plane.
Take a look at the video here:
Her video captured the loud cries and sobs of children as the supposed fire grew bigger. According to flight radar site FlightAware, the plane ended up circling the Puerto Rican airport four times before making another landing attempt on a different runway,
It came 500 feet to the runway but flew by again and did another circle before finally landing at 10.54 pm. Photos shared on social media showed the plane’s front landing gear missing a wheel.
