United plane at Sea-Tac catches fire before takeoff; all passengers evacuated safely
A United Airlines plane that was set to fly from Sea-Tac Airport to Washington, D.C., caught fire before takeoff Saturday night, but no one was hurt as all passengers were safely evacuated, Sea-Tac spokesman Perry Cooper said.
The Port of Seattle Fire Department responded to the report of a fire at 10:27 p.m., Cooper said.
They discovered flames coming from the auxiliary power unit of United flight 776, a Boeing 757 that was scheduled to depart at 10:30 p.m., bound for Dulles International Airport.
Firefighters extinguished the flames, and the plane was evacuated. A preliminary investigation indicated that the fire might be traceable to residual oil in the auxiliary power unit, which is located in the plane’s tail, Cooper said.
The plane was towed to cargo services for further investigation.
United’s website indicated that the flight’s passengers were to be put on another plane, scheduled to leave before midnight. The plane that caught fire came to Sea-Tac from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, the airline’s website said.
Source: http://blogs.seattletimes.com
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