WORLD NEWS: SOUTH KOREAN AIRPLANE GUTS FIRE, PASSENGERS EVACUATED

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The tail of a passenger aircraft caught fire at an international airport in South Korea’s second-largest city on Tuesday, forcing the evacuation of 176 people on board, Yonhap news agency reported.

The Air Busan plane bound for Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan caught fire at around 10:30 pm local time (1330 GMT), the news agency reported.

A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants were evacuated down inflatable slides, Yonhap said, without providing any information about the cause of the fire.

It said one person was injured but gave no other details.

Busan’s fire authorities were not immediately available for comment when contacted by AFP.

South Korea suffered its worst aviation disaster on its soil last month when a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800, flying from Thailand to Muan on December 29, crash-landed and exploded into a fireball after slamming into a concrete barrier.

That crash killed 179 of the 181 passengers and crew members on board.

Flightradar24 lists Air Busan’s fleet as consisting entirely of Airbus aircraft.

AFP