JetBlue reports that no passengers were injured following an evacuation of an Embraer E-190 (N258JB) at the Lynden Pindling International airport in the Bahamas Thursday afternoon.
Flight 1781, with 89 passengers and four crew, had departed Orlando for the Bahamas at 1234h local time, arriving at Nassau at 1335h. According to JetBlue, fire was visible "on the left-hand side of the aircraft near the engine" upon landing at Nassau.
JetBlue says the twinjet "taxied under its own power away from the active taxiway, stopped and successfully deployed the evacuation slides on the right-hand side of the aircraft".
The carrier says the airport fire department was on-site and "immediately extinguished the fire", adding that all "customers and crew were taken safely inside the terminal building".
The incident follows a 31 August smoke event in which a JetBlue E-190 enroute from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to Rochester, New York, declared an emergency shortly after takeoff due to smoke in the cabin.
During the return to the airport, communications with the aircraft were lost and pilots responded to air traffic controller instructions using certain functions of the aircraft's transponder. No injuries were reported. Both incidents are currently under investigation.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
