Two airport firefighters die in fireball at Lima airport in Peru after driving into path of Airbus

Two firefighters at Lima’s international airport were killed Friday after their firetruck collided with a LATAM Airlines plane that was about to take off.

The firetruck sped onto the runway and into the path of the plane, which was carrying 120 passengers. 

Peru’s health ministry said that 20 passengers were being treated in a hospital with at least two were in serious condition. 

Video of the incident posted to social media showed the jet colliding with the firetruck then rapidly catching fire and smoking heavily as it ground to a halt.

A LATAM Airlines jet collided with a firetruck on the runway as it was taking off from the airport in Peru’s capital Lima on Friday

A huge fireball was ignited as the plane slammed into a fire engine that was on the runway

Flames and black smoke could be seen coming out from the rear of the plane after the crash

Lima Airport Partners, the company that operates Jorge Chávez International Airport, said in a tweet that operations at the facility had been suspended. There were 120 passengers and six crew members aboard the Airbus A320neo.

‘Our teams are providing the necessary care to all passengers, who are in good condition,’ the company said.

‘Everyone in the departure lounge was apprehensive until we saw the plane stopped, and then the fire engines and ambulances arrived,’ said Mauro Ferreira, a Brazilian waiting to board a flight home to Panama, who filmed the incident.

‘It was a harrowing feeling because we didn’t know how many people were inside the plane and the flames were very tall.’

From another angle, the plane can be seen hurtling down the runway with the fire truck directly in its path

Moments later, the plane slammed into the truck leaving a trail of thick black smoke behind

Smoke billowed from the plane as a fire broke out following the collision that killed two

Luis Ponce La Jara, general commander of the fire department, said two firefighters were killed and one was injured when the truck they were in was struck by the plane.

 Both the plane and the firetruck were in motion when they collided.

President Pedro Castillo expressed his condolences to the families of the firefighters in a tweet.

Flight LA2213 was taking off from Lima’s main airport en route to the Peruvian city of Juliaca.

Videos on social media showed smoke coming from a large plane on the runway.

The escape slides were used by the 120 passengers and six crew aboard the jet

The fuselage of the plane was blackened as a result of the accident on Friday

The plane’s starboard engine appeared to have been sawn off by the impact with the fire truck

LATAM Airlines said it lamented the death of the firefighters and would provide flexibility to reprogram flights to affected passengers at no extra cost. But it said it did not know why the firetruck was on the runway.

‘No emergency was reported on the flight It was a flight that was in optimal conditions to take off, it had authorization to take off and it encountered a truck on the runway and we don’t know what the truck was doing there,’ said Manuel van Oordt, general manager of LATAM Airlines Peru. ‘We have to investigate and establish why it was there.’

The Prosecutor´s Office in Callao, where the airport is located, said an investigation into the cause of the accident had been opened.

According to the fire department, the incident occurred at 3:25pm.

Aviation authorities said operations at Jorge Chávez International Airport were suspended until 1pm on Saturday with flights being diverted to other airports in the meantime.

This is the second incident in less than a month involving LATAM Airlines, after one of its planes had its nose destroyed during a severe storm that forced it to make an emergency landing. 

A view on Friday night shows the LATAM airline plane following a collision between a LATAM Airlines jet and a vehicle on the runway of Peru’s Jorge Chavez International Airport, in Lima