WORLD NEWS | OFFICIAL: Truck hit by plane on Lima runway is on exercise

LIMA, Nov. 20 (AP) — A fire truck collided with a LATAM Airlines plane on the runway at Lima International Airport while participating in a nearby fire drill and entered the runway without authorization, Peruvian officials said. .

Flight LA2213, operated by Airbus 320neo, was taking off from Lima airport to the southern Peruvian city of Juliaca on Friday when the truck entered the runway and was hit by the wing of the plane. Part of the plane caught fire, but no crew or passengers were injured.

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However, two airport firefighters in the truck were killed and another was injured.

Firefighters were participating in a disaster response drill, officials said at a news conference Saturday.

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The drills are part of preparations for the new runway, which is scheduled to be ready by January, they said.

“In the audio we have, it is clear that no vehicles were authorized to enter the runway,” said Jorge Salinas, president of Corpac, the country’s aviation agency.

“This case is a runway incursion. We don’t know why it happened, if the cause was man-made, mechanical or natural? It’s under investigation. Let’s not speculate.”

Lima’s Jorge Chavez International Airport was due to resume operations at 1 p.m. Saturday, but extended the suspension until midnight Sunday.

The prosecutor’s office is also investigating the accident.

There were 102 passengers and six crew members on board the Airbus A320neo.

LATAM Airlines said it was saddened by the death of the firefighter and would offer the flexibility to reschedule flights for affected passengers at no additional cost. But it said it did not know why the firetruck was on the runway.

“The flight did not report an emergency. It was a flight in optimum conditions for takeoff, it was authorized to take off, but it encountered a truck on the runway and we don’t know what the truck was doing there,” Manuel said. said van Oordt, general manager of LATAM Airlines Peru. (Associated Press)

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