British Airways 2276 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Las Vegas, Nevada to London, England. On September 8, 2015, G-VAIO the aircraft operating the flight - suffered an uncontained left engine failure and subsequent fire during its takeoff roll from Las Vegas-McCarran International Airport, prompting an immediate abort and surprisingly-less-immediate evacuation onto the runway.
The aircraft, bound for Gatwick Airport (near London) had 157 passengers and 13 crew on board. Fourteen people were injured during the evacuation, though none seriously.
Repairs to the aircraft were completed in February 2016 and it was returned to passenger service on March 24, 2016.
As this video dramatically highlights, airport rescue and firefighting ARFF units responded rapidly to this incident. McCarran is an ARFF Index E airport, a designation which governs the number and type of apparatus that must be available and staffed for ARFF emergencies. Index E airports service the largest aircraft in existence and must have at least three firefighting vehicles: one with a relatively small amount of water, and with a designated quantity of either dry powder or clean agent, and "two
The primary response apparatus out of Station 13 were three Legacy (read: old) Striker 3000s, one of which was equipped with a high-reach extendible turret, or HRET. (ARFF units have taken some well-deserved heat from the NTSB and FAA for not making enough use of that versatile and demonstrably-more-effective tool. It got used here, though. Notice the insane volume of water flowing from the boom, on the left of the shot ~19 seconds in. You are looking at the first Oshkosh Striker 4500 8X8 that was ever built, and you are watching its HRET flow well over 1,000 gallons of water and foam per minute.)
The following are the actual fire department dispatch notes from this incident:
16:13:40 – ALPHA 6 – PLANE ON FIRE
16:13:50 – NEAR RUNWAY 7 LEFT
16:14:03 – FIRE SHOWING
16:14:05 – 777 ON FIRE
16:14:53 – PLANE IS ON THE GROUND
16:15:26 – 2ND ALARM
16:15:56 – LAS VEGAS METRO POLICE NOTIFIED
16:17:30 – 2ND ALARM UNITS Z3TAC6
16:17:30 – PER B6 MCI VEHICLE
16:18:03 – EVERYONE HAS EXITED PLANE [4:23 from alarm]
16:18:59 - AMB STRIKE TEAM TO MAIN GATE
16:21:19 – STRUCTURAL UNITS TO MAIN GATE AND WILL BE ESCORTED TO HOLDING PAD 4
* 16:33:26 – RD40 PRIMARY LIFE CLEAR
* 16:36:23 – B6 EMS BRANCH 270 XPORT E25 TRIAGE
* 16:41:16 – 1 TO Desert Springs Hospital
* 16:42:11 – ALL PERSONNEL EXITED PLANE
* 16:44:38 – TOTAL OF 3 TRANSPORTED
* 16:45:19 – 1 M TO DESERT SPRINGS, 1 F TO SPRING VALLEY, 1 F TO SUNRISE
* 16:49:00 – 155 TRANSPORTED BY BUS 13 FLT CREW, 3 TRANSPORTED, 158 ACCTD FOR
* REPORT OF 159 SOULS ON BOARD AND 13 CREW
* INITIAL ACCOUNTING WAS MISSING 1 PERSON
The NTSB has been uncharacteristically quiet about this accident, so instead of linking you to a nonexistent accident report, I'll do one better: Visit http://tiny.cc/britishfire for a massive collection of primary