Guardian reporter Jacob Steinberg was on board BA2276, which burst into flames during takeoff in Las Vegas. Here he describes the fear that gripped passengers

I had fallen into a deep sleep in seat 24H on my British Airways flight to Gatwick long before the plane took off – a few days in Las Vegas does that to a person. So I was not prepared for the drama that was on the way.

Before I drifted off people were reading, chatting and starting to watch the in-flight entertainment and, as usual, I had not paid much attention to the safety demonstrations.

British Airways plane catches fire at Las Vegas airport #BA2276 Read more

You get into a comfort zone when you fly a lot and think that something as terrifying as what was to come could never happen to you. I think differently now.

It all happened so quickly. I was jolted awake up by a huge thud. It took me a while to register what was going on. How long had I been asleep? Were we in the air? Were we still on the ground?



I felt the pilot hitting the brakes. His speed of thought probably saved our lives and that is only really sinking in as I write this. What might have happened had we taken off makes me feel sick.

The pilot still had to stop the plane, though, and you could feel by how fast we were going and how the wheels were juddering across the tarmac that it was a struggle. At a rough guess, it took between 30 seconds and a minute before it stopped.

My friend James, who was sitting behind me, says he had a moment of calm once we were still.

There was confusion. Some people to our left stood up and ran to the front, while a flight attendant told everyone to be calm and stay seated. Most people listened. Not everyone did. We stayed where we were. We on the right side of the plane had no way of knowing that the left engine was on fire.

I remember sitting still and assuming everything would be OK and we would have another go at taking off once we were given the all clear. The message from a nearby flight attendant was still to stay calm. One of her colleagues was reassuring people, saying everything was fine. The lines of communication probably could have been better.

We looked out the window and for the first time saw smoke near the wing. We could smell it. It was like burning rubber – bitter and deeply unpleasant – and it was time to panic.

There was a shout to evacuate the plane. Some people were trying to run, others further ahead were moving slowly, perhaps not realising how serious the situation was. There were even some passengers who tried to get their luggage out of the overhead lockers.

I’ve subsequently seen some criticism of them on Twitter but if you weren’t there, how do you know how you would have reacted? People do odd things when they panic.

Our first move was towards the back of the plane. A flight attendant opened the door and James says he saw utter panic on her face when smoke started to come into the plane. There were shouts to turn around and move towards the front. Some people looked chastened. There was a lot of smoke behind us and even the flight attendant was screaming at us to run.

I wasn’t calm at that point. There was fear in the voices behind me – I remember James pushing me in the back – and congestion near the door. My fear was that we would not get out, even though I could see outside. James later said he thought the plane was going to explode.



At least the door was open and there was no smoke in front of us. There was congestion, though, and it wasn’t a smooth exit on the slide. Some people were hurt, probably from banging into each other, and there were a few cuts and bruises. The flight attendant who opened that door at the back had a bandage on her left elbow later on.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Boeing 777 could be seen with flames around its fuselage shortly after it tried to take off on a flight to London Gatwick. Link to video

Once we reached the bottom, we ran. We didn’t know where to go. We just ran. When we looked back and saw the other side of the plane the extent of the damage was clear. The firefighters were already there, so I never actually saw any flames.

Other people did. One passenger I spoke to told me that he saw the fire melt two windows. Someone else said she had seen orange and wasted no time in running towards the doors.

We didn’t know how to react. We were trying to make light of it, almost to make what had happened seem less real, possibly in a form of self-defence. One guy had his head in his hands. He looked blank. A woman was heaving on the tarmac. The most amazing sight was a mother with her one-year-old daughter – unlike everyone else, the baby was totally oblivious.

Eventually we were led on to buses back to the terminal. We couldn’t move away from customs for a while. A woman next to me was in tears and her friend had a bandage on his knee. Everyone was badly shaken up. Once the adrenalin passed, I realised how quickly my heart was beating. There is probably still an element of shock: when we were leaving the airport, I was shaking.

There was applause when the pilot emerged and spoke to everyone. He said he had been flying for years and had never seen anything like that.

He was speaking to a few passengers later and all the colour had drained from his face. We shook his hand and thanked him. There were not enough words in the world for us to express our gratitude.