The Lima Airport confirmed this Friday the death of two members of the Aeronautical Fire Department, due to the collision of a Latam plane with a truck on the takeoff runway.
At least two aeronautical firefighters died this Friday at the Jorge Chávez international airport, which serves Lima, due to the collision of a plane that was moving along the takeoff runway with a truck in which the rescuers were traveling, informed the concessionaire of the Lima Airport Partners (LAP) terminal.
“Lima Airport Partners deeply regrets the loss of life of two members of the LAP Rescue Corps Aeronautical Fire Department” in the accident that occurred this Friday between a Latam plane and a fire engine on the runway.
The company expressed its solidarity with the families of the deceased firefighters, with whom it has contacted available, and explained that investigations are being carried out to determine the causes of the accident in order to implement corrective actions.
As a result of that crash, the Latam company ship, which was going to fly to the southern Andean city of Juliaca, suffered a fire to the right wing and tail, which prevented its takeoff and, subsequently, the evacuation of its passengers and crew.
For its part, Latam confirmed on Twitter that the aircraft “there are no passengers or crew members deceased”.
“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”, they added.
The Images of the accident were immediately shared on social networks, as well as of the passengers after the rescue and, in them, it can be seen how several fire engines are deployed through the airport and, one of them, gets in the way in the plane’s trajectory.
After the collision, a severely affected area of the plane can also be seen.
In turn, the Ministry of Transport and Communications indicated that the teams from the LAP concessionaire “are providing the necessary attention to passengers”.
“They are coming conducting investigations to determine the causes of the incident”, the ministry added through its Twitter account.
Similarly, the Ministry of Health reported that emergency units are attending to the passengers who suffered bruises and minor injuries during the evacuation.
Due to this ground accident, operations at the Jorge Chávez airport, the largest in Peru, were suspended until 1:00 p.m. local time (18:00 GMT) on Saturday, LAP announced on their social networks.