Passenger plane catches fire at South Korean airport, all 176 people on board evacuated

A passenger plane caught fire before takeoff at an airport in South Korea late on Tuesday, but all 176 people on board were safely evacuated, authorities said.

The airbus plane operated by South Korean airline Air Busan was preparing to leave for Hong Kong when its rear part caught fire at Gimhae International Airport in the southeast, the Transport Ministry said in a statement.

All 169 passengers, six crewmembers and one engineer were evacuated using an escape slide, the ministry statement said.

The National Fire Agency said in a release that three people suffered minor injuries during the evacuation. The fire agency said the fire was completely put out at 11.31 pm, about one hour after it deployed firefighters and fire trucks at the scene.

The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately known. The Transport Ministry said the plane is an A321 model.

Tuesday's incident came a month after a Jeju Air passenger plane crashed at Muan International Airport in southern South Korea, killing all but two of the 181 people on board. It was one of the deadliest disasters in South Korea’s aviation history.