VANCOUVER, B.C. – Federal investigators are on site at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) after passengers on a WestJet flight from Florida had to evacuate via emergency slides late Saturday night due to a small engine fire after the plane had parked at the gate.
The incident occurred on July 12, after WestJet flight 1181, a Boeing 737 arriving from Tampa, had reached its gate and shut down its engines.
According to a statement from WestJet, a “small tailpipe fire” occurred in one of the engines after shutdown. A tailpipe fire is typically a brief flare-up caused by residual fuel igniting in the hot exhaust section of the engine.
At the time, approximately 50 passengers were still on board waiting to deplane. As a safety precaution, the crew made the decision to evacuate the remaining passengers using the inflatable slides.
WestJet has confirmed that no injuries were reported among passengers or crew.
The airport’s own emergency response team was on scene immediately, and the fire was quickly extinguished by the aircraft’s onboard fire suppression systems.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), the agency responsible for investigating air transportation incidents, announced it has deployed a team to Vancouver to “gather information and assess the occurrence.”
While the aircraft involved has been removed from service for a thorough maintenance inspection, airport operations at YVR were not affected, and there were no significant delays to other flights. YVR staff worked with WestJet to reunite the evacuated passengers with their luggage.
