BREAKING: Aircraft carrying Arsenal women’s football team catches fire on runway in Germany

An aircraft due to fly the Arsenal women’s football team from Germany back to London burst into flames on the runway during takeoff.

The Arsenal women’s football team was involved in a dramatic incident last night, Sunday, April 23, after an aircraft due to fly them back to London from Germany caught fire on the runway, as reported by bild.de.

At around 7:30pm, they were seated inside the Boeing 737 at Braunschweig Wolfsburg Airport with the aircraft preparing to take off. At this point, it is unconfirmed, but thought that a bird possibly flew into the turbine of the left-hand engine. It subsequently produced a ‘loud bang’ and burst into flames. Images showed a spectacular fireball around the engine.

Eyewitnesses reported a loud bang. The pilot had to abort the take-off and was able to manoeuvre the plane back into the parking position on his own. An airport spokesperson told the news outlet that the facility’s fire brigade was on-site immediately, but did not have to intervene.

Thankfully, nobody was hurt, and the pilots quickly evacuated all the passengers. ‘Our aircraft developed a technical issue prior to take-off in Germany on Sunday evening”, said a statement from Arsenal.

It continued: ‘As a result, we remained in Wolfsburg overnight on Sunday before flying back to England on Monday afternoon. We would like to thank the staff onboard the aircraft and on the ground at the airport for their assistance’.

The players had been in Germany where they held Wolfsberg to a 2-2 draw in their Champions League match.