Images relayed by American media show the plane, a McDonnell Douglas which came from the Dominican Republic, across the tarmac, half in the grass, the nose shattered, while the passengers left the cabin hastily on one side, black smoke being visible from the other.
The United States transportation safety agency, the NTSB, “is dispatching a team of investigators to Miami after the collapse of the landing gear and the runway excursion of an MD-82 aircraft at the international airport today. from Miami,” she tweeted on Tuesday.
“The nose landing gear collapsed which appears to have caused the fire,” the airport said in a tweet.
“Three patients have been transported to nearby hospitals,” Miami Fire Department said. They specify that they “controlled the fire and limited the fuel leak.”
Flight L5-203 “experienced technical difficulties” when it landed around 5:45 p.m. local time (9:45 p.m. GMT), Red Air, a small low-cost company based in the Dominican Republic and launched in November, said on Twitter.
It specifies that 130 passengers and 10 crew members were evacuated from the aircraft.
An airport spokesperson, however, told AFP on Wednesday that “126 people were on board”, adding that he “did not have the number of crew members”.
