Fire forces evacuation of passenger plane at Karachi airport

Plane’s engine caught fire as the plane was about to take-off

KARACHI: An Emirates passenger airline with 82 people on board bound for Dubai was pulled off the runway minutes before it was supposed to take off after the pilot detected smoke in the cockpit, officials said.

At around 7:45 pm, just as flight EK 609 was due to depart, the pilot called for emergency assistance soon after he had started backing off the Airbus 320, officials said. It had earlier been reported that the plane had taken off and had to turn around for an emergency landing, however, officials denied this was the case and that the plane had not taken off.

"We are not sure about the nature of this emergency.  Right now I can tell you that fire tenders were despatched on the distress call," said Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesperson Pervez George.

"All the passengers and crew members were evacuated and the plane has been parked on one side. No one was hurt."

The plane deployed chutes to evacuate passengers.

Other flights coming in and out of Jinnah International Airport Karachi were not affected.