While there were reportedly no serious injuries, an aircraft with 140 people onboard skidded off the runway and caught fire on Tuesday while landing at Miami Airport.
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RED Air MD-82 has serious landing incident in Miami
On Tuesday, June 21, 2022, RED Air flight L5-203 was operating from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (SDQ) to Miami, USA (MIA). The flight was operated by a roughly 32 year old MD-82 with the registration code HI1064 (interestingly the plane operated for American Airlines for 26 of those years, before the airline retired the aircraft type).
The two hour, 848-mile flight operated as scheduled, until it was time to land in Miami at around 5:45PM. After touching down on Runway 9, the plane veered off the runway and into the grass area. The aircraft hit several objects, before eventually coming to a stop and catching fire.
At this point passengers evacuated, and fortunately there were only a few minor injuries. It’s reported that there were 130 passengers and 10 crew members (10 crew members?!?!?!).
There’s even video footage of the evacuation from inside the cabin, and as usual many people tried to leave with their bags, putting others at risk.
The NTSB is now investigating this incident.
What is RED Air, anyway?
As an aviation geek, one of my favorite things about living in Miami is the variety of airlines we get. Even as someone who is constantly using flight tracking software, I’m amazed by how often I see flights by airlines I don’t know much about (both cargo and passenger services).
For those not familiar with RED Air, it’s a low cost Dominican airline startup. The airline started operations in late 2021, and it’s a joint venture between Venezuela’s LASER Airlines and the Dominican Republic’s SERVAIR Domenica.
The airline currently flies exclusively between Santa Domingo and Miami, generally operating two daily flights. RED Air has a fleet of a few MD-80 family aircraft (well, with one jet having been fully written off, I guess the fleet is now a bit smaller).
Not that having to write off a plane is ever a pleasant thing to do, but I imagine this is especially bad for a startup airline, especially in terms of reputation.
Bottom line
A RED Air MD-82 had a major incident while landing at Miami Airport on Tuesday. The jet veered off the runway, hit several objects, and caught fire. While the aircraft has to be written off, fortunately there were no major injuries, which is a testament to how well planes are built, and how well crews are trained at evacuating passengers.
If you watch the video, everyone seems to run in a crescent pattern back towards the tail where the engine is engulfed.
Who is responsible for crowd control outside of a plane when evacuating? Is it the Cabin Crew or local ground ops? I mean human nature tells you to run away from burning things. But Twitter has given us more courage to get closer to take a video.
What about idiots who were not wearing masks during the pandemic on planes.. that's just as bad. Remember that many people probably had passports and important documents that they need at immigration otherwise they could be in big trouble in the USA so I don't blame them. First world people are clueless about such things.
This immediately reminded me of REDjet, a defunct low-cost carrier, also from the Caribbean, that also operated MD-82s. The difference being it was from Barbados.
My opinion is that passengers who try to retrieve their luggage during an evacuation (or otherwise jeopardize the safety of others) should be permanently banned from flying with the airline ever again.
Airlines should announce this in the pre-flight safety briefing, and re-announce it prior to any emergency landing.
"Any passenger who attempts to retrieve their luggage during an evacuation will be permanently barred from flying with us."
Then, once the headlines start coming,...
My opinion is that passengers who try to retrieve their luggage during an evacuation (or otherwise jeopardize the safety of others) should be permanently banned from flying with the airline ever again.
Airlines should announce this in the pre-flight safety briefing, and re-announce it prior to any emergency landing.
"Any passenger who attempts to retrieve their luggage during an evacuation will be permanently barred from flying with us."
Then, once the headlines start coming, people will learn to have some respect for other's safety. "Passenger permanently banned from airline for retrieving bags during evacuation".
Readers, please consider sending feedback to the airlines to convince them to adopt such a policy.
Unpopular but true: you wag your finger at people instinctively taking their stuff with them. But how would YOU react having never been in a plane crash? Be honest with yourself. Think about it, and be completely honest. How would you really react?? 100% would obviously say they'd do 'the right thing' and follow crew instructions. But in real life, they'd probably be doing what these 'idiots' did. It's human instinct: protect your property (and...
Unpopular but true: you wag your finger at people instinctively taking their stuff with them. But how would YOU react having never been in a plane crash? Be honest with yourself. Think about it, and be completely honest. How would you really react?? 100% would obviously say they'd do 'the right thing' and follow crew instructions. But in real life, they'd probably be doing what these 'idiots' did. It's human instinct: protect your property (and your kids)! Could you really fight against 250,000 year old human instinct? As the saying goes, 'When you point a finger, three fingers point back at you!'.
Not entirely true though. It's usually a minority that take their bags. Human instinct is to either fight or flight. If something's burning, you run like hell away from the fire. Or try to save others. It's not really a natural human instinct to save your underwear or even your camera. That's a developed but messed up sense of priorities in which you're comfortable saying your underwear is worth risking someone else's life.
I...
Not entirely true though. It's usually a minority that take their bags. Human instinct is to either fight or flight. If something's burning, you run like hell away from the fire. Or try to save others. It's not really a natural human instinct to save your underwear or even your camera. That's a developed but messed up sense of priorities in which you're comfortable saying your underwear is worth risking someone else's life.
I think there's also a weird thinking process that people go through in which they somehow assess the situation to not actually be life threatening. Put another way, if a fire breathing dragon was aiming at them directly, they wouldn't pause for their luggage, I'd bet my life on it.
You are right that we probably all think we would just run, and that some of us actually would not. And you're right that we won't know until we're in the situation.
Another news reported 124 passengers.
Am I wrong to think this is just a charade to smuggle illegal immigrants?
We live in a country that prizes individual freedom over civic and social responsibility. Why are we surprised when people are then selfish and inane like this? It's wholly unacceptable behaviour, but it's what we (or half of us I guess) encourage.
"It's a free country, if you don't like it, don't get on a plane" right?
That aside, how stupid are people? There are only two reasonable actions in an emergency situation. Option 1...
We live in a country that prizes individual freedom over civic and social responsibility. Why are we surprised when people are then selfish and inane like this? It's wholly unacceptable behaviour, but it's what we (or half of us I guess) encourage.
"It's a free country, if you don't like it, don't get on a plane" right?
That aside, how stupid are people? There are only two reasonable actions in an emergency situation. Option 1 - get the hell out of there and as far away as fast as possible. Option 2 - save someone else's life.
I'm not catching where it was states this individual who was filming was a US citizen. Therefore, you cant assume what I believe is political angst against a certain political affiliation in the US to this person filming. I do agree on the stupidity repeated in the comments, though.
Not about political affiliation. As a country, we tend to prize the individual over the collective. Our whole society tends to function this way. This is in stark contrast to some (not all) other countries around the world. Nobody knows what is 'right' or 'wrong' but it often manifests palpably badly in situations such as this.
Bottom line - if you're thinking about others and society, you get the hell out of there or...
Not about political affiliation. As a country, we tend to prize the individual over the collective. Our whole society tends to function this way. This is in stark contrast to some (not all) other countries around the world. Nobody knows what is 'right' or 'wrong' but it often manifests palpably badly in situations such as this.
Bottom line - if you're thinking about others and society, you get the hell out of there or help. If you're thinking only about yourself and your material possessions, you make sure you take your bags with you. It's definitely not a fundamental part of flight or fight to stop to gather your belongings. Not how your amygdala works.
Dude, what are you talking about? This is a foreign airline with majority foreign passengers. It is clear you hate America but to use this instance as evidence is beyond ludicrous.
That video also tell me that hardly anyone pay attention to the flight safety demo. Why even have these safety demo. when people are still bringing their carry on with them when they have 90 second to evac. from a burning airplane.
There should be a way to lock all compartments on an emergency so no one can get their carryon
It was discussed by the various transport security agencies and the consensus was it could delay the evacuation process because passengers would try and break open the overhead bins causing bottle necks in the aisles.
And he has his water bottle!!! God forbid he gets dehydrated going down the slide. JFC.
Not only did this idiot take a video during the evacuation, but they also clearly have their carry on with them. Appalling behavior.
Aaaaaand again, selfish idiots take their luggage with them during an evacuation. They should be sued.
Better yet, permanently banned from flying with the airline ever again.
Airlines should announce this in the pre-flight safety briefing, and re-announce it prior to any emergency landing.
"Any passenger who attempts to retrieve their luggage during an evacuation will be permanently barred from flying with us."
Then, once the headlines start coming, people will learn to have some respect for other's safety. "Passenger permanently banned from airline for retrieving bags during evacuation".
Please...
Better yet, permanently banned from flying with the airline ever again.
Airlines should announce this in the pre-flight safety briefing, and re-announce it prior to any emergency landing.
"Any passenger who attempts to retrieve their luggage during an evacuation will be permanently barred from flying with us."
Then, once the headlines start coming, people will learn to have some respect for other's safety. "Passenger permanently banned from airline for retrieving bags during evacuation".
Please consider sending feedback to the airlines to convince them to adopt this policy.