Saudi team land safely after apparent engine fire

ROSTOV-ON-DON: Saudi Arabia’s national soccer team landed safely in Rostov-on-Don, Russia on Monday evening, after an apparent engine fire on the plane carrying the players to a World Cup match.

Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsya said that during the landing there was a brief fire on one of the engines and that it would investigate the incident, Interfax reported. A spokesman for airline Rossiya denied a fire had occurred and said the fault was due to a bird strike.

The team were travelling on a Rossiya Airbus A319 from St Petersburg to Rostov-on-Don, where they are due to play their second Group A match against Uruguay today.

As it came in to land, the plane “suffered a technical fault with one of its engines, with a bird getting caught seen as the preliminary cause,” a Rossiya airlines spokesman said in a statement. Reports of a fire in one of the engines were incorrect, the spokesman added.

“Nothing threatened the safety of the passengers. The aircraft’s landing took place in a routine fashion. No warning was sounded during the landing.”

The Saudi federation released photographs of the players smiling and looking calm as they boarded a bus for the Mercure Hotel in central Rostov.

“All the Saudi national team players are safe, after a technical failure in one of the airplane engines,” it said in a statement on Twitter.

“I want to reassure you that we got to Rostov safely, it was a simple technical fault in the airplane but thank God we are good,” said Saudi captain Osama Hawsawi.

“The whole delegation is well,” midfielder Hattan Bahebri said in a video shared on the team’s official Twitter page.