24 Hurt in N.Y. as Jet Veers Off Runway, Catches Fire

A jetliner veered off a runway after an aborted takeoff and caught fire Thursday at Kennedy International Airport, and at least 24 people suffered minor injuries, authorities said.

Trans World Airlines Flight 843, a three-engine Lockheed L-1011 headed from New York to San Francisco with 287 people aboard, was engulfed in flames from the wings to the tail before the fire was extinguished after about 50 minutes. The plane’s fuselage was cracked near the tail and its belly was on the ground.

Officials said they suspect that the fire started in an engine.

Passengers slid down inflatable emergency chutes to flee the plane.

“Everything was calm, as calm as it can be when you know you’ve got to get out of there because you can see flames and smell smoke,” said Tim Scheld, a reporter for WCBS-AM in New York, who was aboard the plane.

“It appeared to me to be a strange liftoff because the nose didn’t really rise to the level that it normally should,” he said. Then “there was a slight bang” and “we came back down on the ground in a violent fashion.”

Scheld said the pilot could not immediately slow the plane, and it veered off the runway.

“We were all bracing each other, bracing ourselves against the seats in front of us hoping that pieces of the plane would not come free, and they did not. The plane stayed intact on the inside,” Scheld said.

He said he was thinking, “Please come to a stop on your own, please don’t slam into the water or a wall or flip over or anything like that.

“When it did not, I think there was a great sense of relief but that sense of relief was quickly stolen away by the sight of an orange glow coming from the rear of the plane.”

One door was opened and flames were visible, and one of the emergency chutes was on fire, he said.

“There was some pushing and shoving but not that much--as you can imagine everyone trying to get out of the plane as quickly as possible,” Scheld said.

Once everyone was out, he said, “it was just a real surreal scene--200-plus passengers and crew standing out on the tarmac looking at this plane that we were just sitting in go up in flames.”

TWA spokesman Don Fleming said there was “a successful evacuation” of 275 passengers and 12 crew members. “There are no serious injuries at this point,” he said.

Charles DeGaetano, an Emergency Medical Service spokesman, said 24 passengers suffered minor injuries and that all were in stable condition.