Thankfully, the tweet from Chicago Fire Department was unnecessarily alarmist: “EMERGENCY AIRCRAFT DOWN AT OHARE.”

The Twitter statement from the Federal Aviation Administration was more measured: “Flight 383, B767, ORD>MIA, blew a tire at 2:35PM CT & aborted take off. Passengers deplaned. FAA Investigating.”

American Airlines initially simply called the problem with the flight from Chicago O’Hare to Miami “a mechanical issue”.

But by then images of fire burning furiously on the right wing of a Boeing 767 were circulating widely — with the smoke plume even registering on local weather radar.

One contributor to a pilots’ forum reported: “The right wing is toast, outboard half of it melted to the ground.“

Passenger Sarah Ahmed told WLS-TV the plane was speeding down the runway when she heard an explosion and saw flames and black smoke. She said everyone on the right side of the aircraft jumped from their seats and moved to the left side.

“People are yelling, 'Open the door! Open the door!' Everyone's screaming and jumping on top of each other to open the door,” Ms Ahmed said. “Within that time, I think it was seven seconds, there was now smoke in the plane and the fire is right up against the windows, and it's melting the windows.”

As with the Emirates emergency in Dubai in August, and the British Airways fire on the runway at Las Vegas last year, the evacuation of American Airlines flight 383 was a textbook success. All 161 passengers and nine crew members aboard the Miami-bound 767 successfully escaped the burning plane — though as typically happens in an emergency evacuation, a number of people were taken to hospital with minor injuries sustained on the slides.

American Airlines later said: “All passengers onboard flight 383 have been bused back to the terminal. Seven passengers and one flight attendant reported minor injuries and were transported to the hospital to be evaluated. We are taking care of our customers and crew and are re-accommodating our passengers on another flight to Miami this evening.”

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has sent three investigators to the airport for what it called a “tire blowout.”