Venezuelan authorities have disclosed that smoke emitted from the fuselage of a Laser Airlines Boeing MD-82 prompted an evacuation at the gate in Caracas.
The twinjet had been preparing for departure to Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, on 28 April.
Venezuela’s national civil aeronautics institute INAC states that the aircraft’s doors were closed at 11:14 ahead of the scheduled 11:30 departure.
As it was pushing back, says the regulator, “smoke was observed coming out of the fuselage”.
“The crew proceeded to disembark passengers using emergency slides,” it adds.
Ninety-two passengers had been on board the jet, which INAC identifies as YV2923 – an aircraft originally delivered to American Airlines in 1988.
Passengers were transferred to a zone where they could receive medical treatment, in accordance with the airport’s emergency plan.
Once the situation was under control, says INAC, Laser Airlines carried out the flight after changing aircraft.
INAC has yet to establish the cause of the incident and the evacuation, and says it is conducting an “exhaustive evaluation” of safety protocols at Laser Airlines and Caracas’s Simon Bolivar airport.
