all crew and passengers were able to get off by using emergency slides. seven suffered minor injuries. joining us bob hager an nbc news contributor. we heard from dominick worthington, a passenger on the plane, saying a no flame or smoke in the plane. certainly at the front end where he was. you have seen the images here. it seems like an engine fire. what is the best reckoning at this point of what was involve ed here? that s very complicated. normally an engine problem doesn t manifest the way this did with open flame and all of that smoke. the headline here is we are so fortunate. this was a very, very close call. emergency if that eng problem had developed seconds later when the plane had already lifted off and the entire crew and all of the passengers could have been goners if it happened once the plane was in the air and had to do a crash landing.
over wing exits, but when the wings are what s on fire, then that s really not a place you want to be. to make matters worse, the aisle in back of them is blocked. the woman right behind us, she was just indicating to my husband the overhead above his head, and he reaches up there and pulls out a pair of crutches. her husband had a broken leg. so he pulled it down. we just thought, oh, no. i turned back, and already the entire plane was almost empty in the front. finally, they managed to reach the emergency slides at the front of the cabin. the slide, it s sort of slippery so you go down really fast. if the plane wasn t on fire, that would have been really, really fun. the carusos are some of the last passengers to get out. seconds later, the plane explodes. whoa! it was loud. it was big. the entire center part of the plane where the caruso family
the american airlines jet to chicago. passengers were able to escape using emergency slides. three were injured. then a spirit airlines jet caught fire coming from orlando. firefighters put out the flames. passengers were then allowed to exit normally. there s a reason the saying goes once in a blue moon. tonight you can check out the rare lunar event which happens when there s a second full moon in one calendar month. don t let the name fool you. nasa says blue moons aren t always blue. tonight it could be red. your next chance, january 2018. those are your headlines. that s pretty cool. blue moon. sounds different than red moon. oh gosh. i ll let scotty sing today. blue moon. it would be like that.
we were in the middle of the plane, and normally it s not a bad thing to be close to the over wing exits, but when the wings are what s on fire, then that s really not a place you want to be. to make matters worse, the aisle in back of them is blocked. the woman right behind us, she was just indicating to my husband the overhead above his head, and he reaches up there and pulls out a pair of crutches. her husband had a broken leg. so he pulled it down. we just thought, oh, no. i turned back, and already the entire plane was almost empty in the front. finally, they managed to reach the emergency slides at the front of the cabin. the slide, it s sort of slippery so you go down really fast. if the plane wasn t on fire, that would have been really, really fun. the carusos are some of the last passengers to get out. seconds later, the plane explodes. whoa! it was loud.
time it became so slippery that the plane slid 4,000 feet of a 7,000 foot runway coming dangerously close to the icy water. there were problems evacuating the plane as well, weren t there, will? reporter: there were problems evacuating the plane, because after the aircraft was basically part of the nose of the plane was dangling over the water, the plane s emergency slides did not deploy. listen to what we were told about that. shortly before the incident approximately 11:05, two planes landed and reported quote, good braking action on the runways. the runway this particular runway had been plowed shortly before the incident and pilots on other planes reported good braking action. reporter: passengers had to get off the plane, they had to trudge through the snow. some of them without jackets. again, 24 people with minor injuries and there have been