British Airways Boeing 777 catches fire at Las Vegas airport and forces evacuation

All 159 passengers and 13 crew escaped from the aircraft

A British Airways Boeing 777 bound for London caught fire on the runway at Las Vegas’s McCarran International Airport on Tuesday afternoon, forcing an emergency evacuation.

All 159 passengers and 13 crew escaped from the aircraft via emergency slides; two were treated for minor injuries.

BA Flight 2276 was about to take off on the 10-hour flight to London Gatwick when the 275-seat plane suffered an engine failure. Footage and photographs from the scene showed the aircraft, a B777-200, engulfed in smoke. One of the airport’s four runways was out of service following the fire, which began at approximately 4.22pm local time, airport officials said.