Philadelphia Plane Crash Lands After Aborted Takeoff; Uninjured Passengers Take Selfies (PHOTOS)
A Philadelphia plane crashed after an aborted takeoff early in the evening Thursday. Flight 1702 on U.S. Airways was taking off from Philadelphia International Airport when the tire blew, forcing the pilot to land harshly; fortunately all passengers and staff aboard were fine.
The Philadelphia plane that crashed was heading to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. before the incident occurred. The pilot had little choice in the matter, but did a good job landing the plane, according to Joe Taney, President of America/U.S. Airways. Out of 149 passengers, only two were hospitalized for a minor injury and minor illness.
"We assume [the pilot did a good job] based on the fact that everyone is safe and everyone got down safe and evacuated safely and everyone was well taken care of, so I assume our captain did a great job on the aircraft and he should be commended," Taney told Reuters.
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After the plane landed tilted nose first into the ground, the airplane staff evacuated the passengers via the emergency inflatable slides. Firefighters were also on the scene with foam to make sure the aircraft didn't catch on fire.
Before media outlets could cover the story, passengers themselves took pictures and selfies with the down plane, posting them online for all to see.
"So my plane just crashed," @han_horan tweeted alongside a picture, which was speedily retweeted upwards of 5,000 times.
"I almost just died," she added beside another selfie of her with the plane in the background. "So yup."
"Plane just crashed, but we are OK," Dennis Fee captioned another picture posted to his Instagram.
