British Airways jetliner badly damaged on Vegas runway.
The 157 passengers and 13 crew members aboard a British Airways Boeing 777 that suffered what appears to be a catastrophic uncontained engine failure during the takeoff roll are lucky to be alive after a serious fire and billowing black smoke severely damaged the jetliner on the runway at Las Vegas International Airport yesterday.
Had the engine failure occurred moments later, when the airliner was already airborne, the outcome might have been much worse.