A major accident was averted on Saturday at Denver International Airport in Colorado, USA. An American Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 bound for Miami caught fire in the rear section after an aborted takeoff due to landing gear failure.

The incident occurred at 2:45 PM local time (2:30 AM NST). There were 173 passengers and 6 crew members on board, all of whom were evacuated via emergency slides.

Six people sustained minor injuries, and one person was hospitalized. Earlier on June 12, an Air India Boeing 787-8 aircraft crashed in Ahmedabad just two minutes after takeoff, killing 270 people.

American Airlines stated that a tire malfunction caused the issue, and the aircraft has been taken out of service. The fire has been extinguished, and a replacement plane was dispatched for the Miami-bound passengers. Due to the incident, 87 flights were affected between 2 PM and 3 PM.