During the followingnoon of this Friday an accident was reported in the Jorge Chavez Airportin Peru, that involved a Latam airline plane that collided with a truck on the runway of the place, leaving two volunteer firefighters deceased.
According to the first information, the event occurred when the plane had a technical failure with its landing gear at the time of takeoff, in response to which the help of the terminal firefighters was requested to attend to the people injured by this situation. It was at that moment that one of the cars hit the track, being hit by the ship, as can be seen in various videos posted on social networks.
As explained by the representative of the General Fire Company, Mario Casareto to local media, the ship “reported that it had problems with the landing gear and that the response units were mobilized (…)”.
From the official channels of the airport, they indicated that as soon as the accident occurred, they arranged for their teams to deploy on the site to attend to the injured and that they were investigating the causes of the event.
Minutes later they reported the two deceased: “We express our solidarity with the families of Ángel Torres of the Garibaldi 6 Fire Company and Nicolás Santa Gadea of the Garibaldi 7 Fire Company, with whom we have already contacted to make ourselves available to them.”
In addition, they detailed that as a result of the incident, operations at the Jorge Chávez international airport will be suspended. “until this Saturday, November 19 at 1:00 p.m. (local time). We recommend that passengers contact their respective airlines to manage the rescheduling of their flights. While the DGAC, in Chile, decided to suspend flights to the aforementioned air terminal “until further notice.”
Around 7:00 p.m. meanwhile, the Peruvian Fire Department reported via Twitter that of the 102 passengers of the damaged ship “so far 36 injured and 4 seriously ill.” Meanwhile, the general commander of the General Fire Department, Luis Ponce Jara, commented to local media that at a time when the plane “the right wing had an impact with the airport fire truck, causing the death of two firefighters and injuring another fireman who was also in the cabin.
While, Latam Peru detailed through a statement that “we regret to confirm that flight LA2213 that covered the Lima – Juliaca route, operated by LATAM Airlines Peru suffered an accident on the ground. There are no deceased passengers or crew members.” And that the incident occurred just before takeoff and that “LATAM Airlines Peru has deployed its Emergency Plan mobilizing all available human and physical resources to provide immediate assistance to passengers and crew on board”.
After what happened, the Ministry of Health Peruvian ordered the transfer of eight ambulances to attend the emergency. “Our health personnel are already treating the injured in the accident that occurred on the runway of the Jorge Chávez Airport,” reported via Twitter.
According to the newspaper La República, meanwhile, the collision would have caused one of the engines at the rear of the plane to catch fire, but airport personnel managed to control the incident.