24 People Injured in Emergency Evacuation

An American Airlines plane had to be evacuated before takeoff at the Palm Beach International Airport (PBI).

American Airlines Flight 1822, with a route from Palm Beach, Florida to Philadelphia, began taxiing down the runway for takeoff without incident. But the situation quickly soured, as passengers heard squealing sounds and smelled something burning before the entire plane shut down and the pilots evacuated all passengers. All the emergency doors and windows were opened, the slides were deployed, and passengers set to slide off the place.

The cause was apparently a hydraulic fluid leak. Passengers were terrified, and WPBF 25 News reported on their reactions.

“It was very frightening because [the pilot] was very stern in his voice,” passenger Cathy Quinn told WPBF. “People started screaming. Everybody’s just like, ‘Get off the plane. Get off the plane.’ It was almost like the inside of a paint can, a fume that was crazy. It was so disgusting.”

Cathy’s daughter, Meghan, was also on the plane.

“All of a sudden, it started smelling really bad,” Meghan told WPBF. “Then out of nowhere, just the whole plane shut off. Everyone was screaming. The lady in front of us was having a panic attack, crying. It was scary.”

As passengers got off the plane, they were treated by a runway triage unit. According to NBC 10 News, 23 passengers and one flight attendant were taken to nearby hospitals because of “burning eyes, itchy skin and difficulty breathing.”

A Jet Blue flight was trapped behind the American Airlines plane on the runway for more than an hour before it was able to back up and take off.

[Photo: PBIA]