Audio By Carbonatix
An American Airlines flight made an emergency landing at Denver International Airport before catching fire on Thursday, March 13, and people are still scrambling for answers.
The flight ended up at the C terminal of the airport, where the Boeing 737-800 caught fire, forcing passengers to deplane by climbing on the wing or using emergency slides. Of the 172 passengers and six crew members, twelve people were sent to the hospital with minor injuries.
The plane wasn’t supposed to be in Denver at all, having taken off from Colorado Springs with a destination of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
“We thank our crew members, DEN team and first responders for their quick and decisive action with the safety of everyone on board and on the ground as the priority,” American Airlines said in a statement to various news organizations.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, crew members reported “engine vibrations” before the flight diverted to DIA. After landing in Denver, the plane caught fire on the ground.
When Will We Know Why the Plane Caught Fire?
According to the FAA, the National Transportation Safety Board will be in charge of the investigation. The NTSB is an independent federal agency charged with investigating every civilian aviation accident in the United States.
“NTSB is sending two investigators with expertise in commercial aircraft and powerplants,” the agency says in a March 14 statement. “They expect to arrive on scene today. Once on site, the investigators will begin the process of documenting and examining the aircraft, conducting witness and crew interviews, and obtaining other data that could contain information relevant to the investigation. “
Under the NTSB investigation process, it could be a long time before the reason for the fire is known.
“The NTSB will not announce the cause of an accident while on scene,” the agency explains on its website. “Indeed, the cause may not be determined for one to two years after the accident.”
The NTSB has a regional office in Denver that investigates aviation cases. According to the NTSB, the agency investigates around 1,200 accidents each year.
Though it may be years before the cause is fully determined, a preliminary report will be issued “roughly a month after an accident,” according to the NTSB. However, preliminary reports contain “only factual information collected on scene. It will not contain analysis or contain a finding of probable cause,” the board notes.
Safety recommendations related to the accident will be included in the final report.
In the meantime, the FAA is struggling with understaffing in the nationwide air traffic control system. That’s been the case for years, but it was exacerbated last month when the Trump administration fired 400 FAA workers.
While the administration says that no one in a “critical safety” position was included in the cuts, an FAA union says some of the eliminated jobs supported safety inspections and airport operations. The incident in Denver is just one of several high-profile aviation incidents this year.
Check out this video of the fire shared on X:
American Airlines flight 4012 just caught fire at Denver airport pic.twitter.com/EHIGMAqJjJ
— Stone (@flynnstone) March 14, 2025
