Everyone onboard a recent Ryanair flight was forced to evacuate when the cabin crew noticed fire emanating from one of the aircraft’s two engines as it began its take-off roll at an airport in Italy. All passengers and crew made it off the aircraft safely with no apparent injuries, having exited using the emergency slides.
Ryanair flight FR8826 was scheduled to operate on October 3, 2024, from Brindisi-Papola Casale Airport (BDS) in the southwest of Italy to Turin-Caselle Airport (TRN) in the north. The flight, operated by a Malta Air Boeing 737-800 registered 9H-OCB on behalf of parent airline Ryanair, pushed back from its gate at Brindisi and headed out to the active runway 31 at the airport.
With 184 passengers and crew onboard for the 90-minute flight to Turin, the aircraft prepared to begin its take-off roll. However, the cabin crew became aware of smoke and flames coming from the right-hand (number two) engine and alerted the flight crew. The pilots promptly shut down both engines and ordered an immediate evacuation of the airplane using the emergency escape slides.
Video footage of the incident shows airport fire vehicles arriving swiftly at the scene, with firefighters hosing down the number two engine with fire retardant. Meanwhile, on the other side of the plane, passengers can be seen exiting down the slides and walking off to the grass area alongside the runway threshold. The airport was closed temporarily while the incident was dealt with and the aircraft was removed from the runway.
Later in the day, Ryanair sent another of its fleet of Boeing 737s to Brindisi to take the passengers on to Turin. FR2286 operated by Boeing 737 MAX-8200 registered 9H-VUW eventually departed at 13:39 local time, arriving in Turin at 15:03, with the passengers arriving at their final destination five hours and ten minutes later than planned.
According to data from Flightradar24, the original aircraft (9H-QCB) had operated six sectors to and from Turin the previous day (October 2, 2024) and had operated FR8827 from there to Brindisi on the morning of the incident. The plane was departing back to Turin when the engine fire occurred. The aircraft remains grounded at Brindisi at the time of writing, presumably awaiting inspection and possibly repairs to the engine or replacement.
Data obtained from ch-aviation shows that the aircraft involved is 8.7 years old, having first been delivered to Ryanair as EI-FOP in February 2016. It was transferred to the Malta Air subsidiary and reregistered as 9H-QCB in November 2019.
The incident follows another Ryanair 737 suffering a ground incident in Italy earlier in the same week. Just two days earlier, a Ryanair 737 MAX 8200 was left stranded on the runway at Milan Bergamo Airport (BGY) after its four landing gear tires suffered a blowout during the landing.
According to Milan Bergamo Airport management, the incident caused damage to 450 meters (1,485ft) of the runway, due to the surface being scraped by the aircraft’s tireless wheel assemblies.