Jetliner hits firetruck in Peru; 2 dead

LIMA, Peru — A LATAM Airlines plane taking off from Lima’s international airport struck a firetruck on the runway and caught fire Friday. Authorities said the plane’s passengers and crew were all safe, but two firefighters in the truck were killed.

Lima Airport Partners, the company that operates Jorge Chavez International Airport, said in a tweet operations at the facility had been suspended. Flights would be direct to other airports in the meantime.

There were 102 passengers and six crew members aboard the Airbus A320neo.

Luis Ponce La Jara, general commander of the fire department, said two firefighters were killed and one was injured when the truck they were in was struck by the plane. The plane and the firetruck were in motion when they collided.

President Pedro Castillo expressed his condolences to the families of the firefighters in a tweet.

Flight LA2213 was taking off from Lima’s main airport en route to the Peruvian city of Juliaca.

LATAM Airlines said it lamented the death of the firefighters and would provide flexibility to reprogram flights to affected passengers at no extra cost. But it said it did not know why the firetruck was on the runway.

“It was a flight that was in optimal conditions to take off, it had authorization to take off and it encountered a truck on the runway,” said Manuel van Oordt, general manager of LATAM Airlines Peru. “We have to investigate and establish why it was there.”

The prosecutor’s office in Callao, where the airport is located, said an investigation into the cause of the accident had been opened.