numbers. he is still the republican party s front-runner. he s still the one to beat. that was nbc s peter alexander and hallie jackson reporting. we have images from a near disaster at florida s fort lauderdale airport. yesterday, a passenger jet caught fire just moments before takeoff. 21 people were injured evacuating the plane but luckily none of the injuries were serious. nbc s dan schenamen has more. reporter: passengers on other planes caught the dramatic scene on video. a dynamic airline jet on fire, on the tarmac at florida s fort lauderdale/hollywood airport. with 101 passengers and crew on board the plane was fully loaded with fuel and preparing for takeoff to caracas, venezuela, that s when, according to the faa, the crew of a plane behind it reported seeing fuel leaking. dynamic, out of the left engine looks like it s leaking a lot of i don t know if it s fuel, fluid leaking out of the left engine. any time you have a fully fuelled aircraft taxiing with an engine
quickly exited. you just look at all the smoke coming from that plane. the engine of the boeing 767 that burst into flames just moments before the plane was set to take off for venezuela. cnn s randi kaye has more on what went wrong. reporter: a pilot with a keen eye notices the first sign of trouble. fuel leaking from the plane taxiing in front of him. dynamic airways flight 405. he radios it in. hey, dynamic, out of the left engine looks like it s leaking a lot of fuel. fluid leaking out of the left engine. reporter: air traffic controllers contact flight 405. do you copy? yes, sir, we copy. we ll probably need to go back to the ramp. reporter: but before they could engine is on fire, engine is on fire! fire rescue units received the call at 12:34 for a reported engine fire aboard the jet. our units deployed.
people started freaking out. screams and people crying and i didn t know how to react. now ntsb trying to determine why the left engine began leaking fuel just before takeoff bursting into thes flames. a pilot trailing flight 405 was the first to spot trouble. out of left engine looks like it is leaking a lot of, i don t know if it s fuel but it is fluid of the left engine. moments later. engines on fire. emergency responders arriving within minutes dousing the engine with foam and extinguishing the fire. passengers on the plane nearby capturing the chaos. 17 people injured in the melee were hospitalized. including one child and a trauma patient. most are musculoskeletal. ankles, knees, elbows. abrasions. a fracture. but in general everybody was very nervous and shaken up.
were hurt in the fire and evacuation that follow, one seriously. now a safety inspector is digging into every inch of this small and young carrier s operation. the story is unfolding between conversations of air traffic control. the flight crew and another behind it. more from randi kaye. reporter: a pilot with a keen eye notices the first sign of trouble. fuel leaking from the plane taxiing in front of him. dynamic airways flight 405 he radios it in. hey, dynamic, out of the left engine looks like it s leaking a lot of, i don t know if it s fuel. fluid leaking out. reporter: air traffic controllers contact flight 405. dynamic, do you copy? we copy. we probably need to go back to the ramp. reporter: before they could. engine is on fire! fire rescue units received the call at 12:34 for reported engine fire aboard the jet. our units deployed.