165 Escape Plane Before Blast; Problems Started After Normal Landing

By DEBBY WU, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NAHA, Japan Taiwan grounded its fleet of Boeing 737-800 jetliners after a China Airlines plane exploded in a fireball Monday on the tarmac in Okinawa, and officials said a fuel leak may be to blame. All 165 passengers and crew scrambled down emergency chutes or jumped from cockpit windows some just seconds before the blast.

Passengers described a normal landing after Flight CI-120 landed on the resort island of Okinawa from the Taiwanese capital of Taipei. But as the jet came to a stop near the terminal, they said that the left engine began smoking, followed by the right one.

Okinawa Airport traffic controllers had received no report from the pilot indicating anything was wrong as the plane came in to land and even as it stopped near the terminal to unload passengers, said Japanese Transport Ministry official Akihiko Tamura.

When the smoke started billowing outside the plane, the cabin crew already was standing by the doors, said a passenger who gave his surname as Tsang and identified himself as a guide for Taipei’s Southeast Tours.

"The passengers saw the smoke first and they began to yell and demand that the doors be opened," he said.

Tamura said the fire started "when the left engine exploded a minute after the aircraft entered the parking spot."

The main explosion, which engulfed the center of the aircraft in flames, occurred after the passengers slid down the emergency chutes at the front and rear of the plane.

There were no serious injuries among the 157 passengers, including two infants, and crew of eight, the Taiwan-based China Airlines said.

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