DENVER — A former volunteer firefighter who was on-board the American Airlines flight that caught fire in Denver on Thursday is speaking out about the experience.
Richard Lauer said he was traveling from Colorado Springs to Dallas where he was planning to get on his connecting flight to Charlotte, N.C.
Lauer said he first noticed something didn't seem right when the plane's take-off process from the Springs felt, what he described as "rough."
"Approximately 15 to 20 minutes into the flight, they made an announcement that there was some form of engine trouble and they needed to divert to Denver," Lauer recalled. "I was not worried or nervous hearing that, I was more annoyed, you know, that I was going to be delayed."
Lauer said they were told it was the plane's right engine that was having issues and that they'd have to power it down — though he's not sure to what extent.
"It felt like we weren't traveling at a really high rate of speed or anything, and then also we were traveling at a lower altitude, like the plane descended quite a bit going into Denver. I don't know if that was just a normal approach to Denver," he added.
Just minutes after getting to Denver, Lauer said he started hearing the panic from other passengers who were on board, yelling that there was a fire.
"At the level that I saw the fire when I saw it from my viewpoint, which is at the back of the plane, I would suspect that that fire had been going on for more than 10 seconds," he said. "You can see smoke, you can see some flames up through the windows, and then the cabin started to fill up with smoke. And at that point, they opened the emergency exit, and everybody in my section of plane would've exited via the emergency slide."
Lauer, who is a former volunteer firefighter, said he was able to remain calm in that situation and assist others around him in those moments.
"Obviously, you know, some people handle stress differently than other people do, so there was some panic that happened. But I felt like the staff on board handled that fairly well. I mean, as well as you can handle that," Lauer said. "I probably didn't place the correct amount of value on the actual danger that I was in, but I personally did not witness any injuries. I do believe that that some people were taken out by EMS."
He's praising the flight team for their efforts in keeping the passengers safe.
"Now with more information that I have, I suspect that pilot did a pretty darn good job," he said.
Lauer said he finally was able to make it to Charlotte on Friday morning.
In a statement Friday, UCHealth officials said all 12 patients who were treated Thursday night at the UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital emergency department had been released.
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