Plane Catches Fire On Runway; Faa Says It Had No Past Issues

(AP) — The plane that caught fire as it prepared to take off from Fort Lauderdale to Venezuela had no previous incidents or issues, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday as cleanup from the fuel that spilled on the taxiway continued. The Dynamic Airways plane — a Boeing 767/269 that was manufactured in 1986 and is owned by Utah-based airplane leasing company KMW Leasing in Salt Lake City — lost 45 to 50 gallons of fuel, damaging the asphalt. Don Dodson, the director of operations for Dynamic Airways, said airline officials had set up a crisis center, flown in additional airline representatives to help passengers and arranged for a relief flight to take passengers to their final destinations. An air traffic controller told the pilot "a lot of fluid" was leaking from his left engine and then urgently said the engine had caught fire and that he was dispatching firefighters, according to an audio recording posted by WSVN. Dynamic began servicing Caracas in July, after several other major airlines ended or slashed service to Venezuela over the government's refusal to pay an estimated $4 billion the carriers say they have trapped in the country. For Venezuelans hoping to travel abroad, the options have been severely reduced to little-known carriers such as Dynamic or domestic carriers, which have struggled to import replacement parts because of the country's economic crisis. Airline officials said they've already started reviewing records for the crew and the plane, which was last inspected in June and had a new engine with less than 200 hours of flight time.