NASSAU, Bahamas -- A fire near the engine of a JetBlue aircraft that landed at Lynden Pindling International Airport yesterday forced the evacuation of more than 80 people.
A JetBlue report issued to the Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) said flight 1781 traveled from Orlando to New Providence after it took off from the Orlando International Airport. The report said the plane landed about an hour after taking off. It added that the fire was seen from the left side of the plane near the engine.

According to the report, the airplane taxied under its own power away from an active taxiway and successfully deployed the evacuation slides on both sides of the airplane.

Captain Patrick Rolle, director of Civil Aviation, said ground crew at the airport were alerted to the plane's distress around noon. "The plane came in and the pilot reported that there was a fire alarm in the cockpit," Rolle said. "...The pilot evacuated the passengers and the fire team came."

Eighty-four people, including five infants and four crew members, were removed from the plane, according to the JetBlue report. Rolle added that no one was injured. He said that shortly after the plane landed, local investigators began looking into the cause of the fire.

"The persons from Flight Standards (inspectorate) went out and interviewed the captain of the airplane," Rolle said. "We talked [for a] while about any possible recurring problems with the engine and there wasn't any. The captain filled out a report and we will be speaking with the operations department [Friday] to confirm some of the questions that we placed to the operations department."

As investigations continue, Rolle said the JetBlue aircraft remains grounded and the airline is expected to fly in a team of experts to help with the investigations. Rolle added that despite the scare in the skies, the incident was a routine mishap that pilots are often trained to handle.

"The airplanes are equipped and designed with fire warning systems," he said. "If the temperature in the engine gets over a certain degree, the fire warning would come on indicating to the pilot that there is a problem. It's normally a routine procedure that they train on every six months so they are quite familiar with it and really it was an emergency but not a critical emergency because it's a known problem."

Minister of Tourism and Aviation Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace said he was alerted of the incident and expects a more full report today.

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