Fire Forces Jumbo Jet to Land; 35 Hurt

An engine fire forced a Northwest Airlines Boeing jumbo jet with 385 people aboard to make an emergency landing Thursday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, an official said.

All 366 passengers and 19 crew members were evacuated from the Boeing 747-100 via emergency chutes after the plane landed safely, said John Austin, a Northwest spokesman in Minneapolis. He said 35 passengers reported injuries, including 11 who were taken to hospitals for examination.

Before the evacuation, which took about five minutes, foam was sprayed to extinguish the engine fire and a small grass fire the flames had ignited, said Dick Meyer of the Federal Aviation Administration in Seattle.

Austin said airline personnel at the scene reported the engine was smoking but no flames were visible when the plane came to a stop. A large hole in the engine was visible.

Five minutes after Tokyo-bound Northwest Flight 7 took off from Seattle the pilot reported a light indicating a fire in the No. 4 engine, the outside jet on the right wing of the four-engine plane, Meyer said. The pilot requested permission to dump fuel and land.

Meyer said flames were seen coming from the engine while the fuel was being dumped.

Austin said the pilot dumped about 90,000 pounds of the plane’s approximately 275,000 pounds of fuel before landing. “The fuel all dissipated before it got to the ground,” Meyer said.