Headlines News
B.C. airline denies engine fire

Nov. 15, 2012, Trail, B.C. – A spokesman for Pacific Coastal Airlines is challenging claims made by a passenger that an engine aboard a B.C. plane caught fire after landing.

The plane, a Saab 640A, landed in Trail, B.C., at about 4 p.m. Tuesday with 30 passengers on board after making a trip from Vancouver.

Passenger Doug Stoddart told the Nelson Daily after the incident that the right-side engine was totally engulfed in flames and smoke was rising over the plane, and he had to tell the pilot about the fire.

Airline spokesman Spencer Smith says the airplane landed and shut down with no indication of fire, but the flight crew immediately deployed the fire-suppression system after a passenger reported a blaze.

Smith says sometimes extra fuel builds up in the exhaust pipe when the plane is shutting down, and that fuel is shot out and can appear as a flame.

He says the plume of smoke passengers thought they saw was actually the fire retardant that was released by crew.