An Azur Air Boeing 767 was evacuated after one of its main landing gear caught fire upon arrival in Barnaul Airport, West Siberia. At least 56 people were injured, one of them was transported to a hospital.
The Boeing 767-300, registered VP-BUV, was carrying out flight ZF2244 from Nha Trang International Airport (CXR), Vietnam to Barnaul Airport (BAX), Russia, with 334 passengers and 10 crew members on board. As it was landing at the destination airport, the right main landing gear caught fire.
The fire was quickly extinguished. Meanwhile, passengers were evacuated from the left-hand side of the aircraft. However, it appears that the operation was quite disorderly, as panic spread among the passenger crowd. According to witnesses quoted by amic.ru, several passengers allegedly jumped from the aircraft before the emergency slides were fully inflated. In total, 56 people required medical assistance, the Western Siberian transport investigation department told TASS. A woman was admitted to a hospital with a spinal fracture.
В Барнауле у Boeing 767 при посадке загорелась стойка шасси. Никто не пострадал, всех успели эвакуировать, но нервы, кажется, потрепались у многих pic.twitter.com/Ww1diPnobH
— baza (@bazabazon) September 25, 2019
The hard landing was initially mistaken for a safety exercise supposed to take place on the same day at Barnaul Airport, deputy chairman of the Altai Territory government Igor Stepanenko told Interfax. Nonetheless, Stepanenko assured that the misperception did not delay the intervention of the emergency services. A criminal investigation into a possible violation of traffic safety rules and the operation of air transport was started by the West Siberian Investigation Department on Transport.
On May 5, 2019, forty-one people died during the evacuation of an Aeroflot Superjet-100 that caught fire in Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO), Moscow.
