A passenger plane has caught fire before take-off at an airport in South Korea, with all 176 people on board safely evacuated.
The Airbus plane operated by South Korean airline Air Busan was preparing to leave for Hong Kong late on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) when its rear parts caught fire at Gimhae International Airport in the southeast, the Transport Ministry said.
All of the plane’s 169 passengers, six crew members and one engineer were evacuated using an escape slide, the ministry statement said.
READ MORE: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol charged with rebellion over martial law declaration
The National Fire Agency said in a release that three people suffered minor injuries during the evacuation.
The fire agency said the fire was completely put out at 11.31pm, about one hour after it deployed firefighters and fire trucks at the scene.
The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately known. The Transport Ministry said the plane is an A321 model.
It was one of the deadliest disasters in South Korea’s aviation history.
The Boeing 737-800 skidded off the airport’s runaway on December 29 after its landing gear failed to deploy, slamming into a concrete structure and bursting into flames.
The flight was returning from Bangkok and all of the victims were South Koreans except for two Thai nationals.
The first report on the crash released on Monday said authorities have confirmed traces of bird strikes in the plane’s engines, though officials haven’t determined the cause of the accident.
