American Airlines 737 Fire, Idiots Escape With Bags, Lives
An American Airlines 737 in Denver experienced a fire that forced an evacuation. Some passengers escaped with their bags, were lucky to make it out alive.
American Airlines Fire Incident In Denver
On Saturday, July 26th, 2005 American Airlines flight 3023 suffered an apparent fire underneath the aircraft. It may have been the tires or brakes, a common area of concern due to overheating on landing. This incident took place upon departure, with some passengers suggesting it was about ten seconds before liftoff. The airline called it a maintenance issue and the FAA had the following statement:
“The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the crew of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 “reported a possible landing gear incident during departure” at around 2:45 p.m. local time. – CBS News
The flight was carrying 173 passengers to Miami and six crew members, all of who escaped via aircraft door emergency slides. Passengers were said to have been accommodated later in the day. One passenger was treated at a hospital. The incident delayed some departures.
Footage Of Passengers Escaping With Luggage
Video of the incident was shared on X and other social media platforms. Images show the fire below, window exits open, and people evacuating from the slides many with luggage and some with children and luggage in hand.
#BREAKING: Watch as People evacuate from a American Airlines jet after a left main wheels caught fire
Watch as passengers and crew evacuate American Airlines Flight 3023, a Boeing 737 MAX 8, at Denver International Airport. The Miami-bound jet was forced… pic.twitter.com/RmUrXYj5Jp
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) July 26, 2025
This segment of the video shows a father with a suitcase in his right hand, and a child dangling in his left. He makes it down the slide but stumbles to the ground with the child in his arms.
#UPDATE: Please don’t be like this father focus on your child instead of your luggage. You can’t safely manage both, and it only leads to accidents, like the one that just happened putting others at risk too pic.twitter.com/8CgeGFSD0K
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) July 26, 2025
Sadly, he was not the only one to struggle with the slide as well as with their luggage.
When Will This End?
It’s easy to chastise passengers in far away lands that foolishly ignore their safety and that of their fellow travelers to take a carry-on through the aisle and down the slide with them. It clearly caused some to lose their balance, fall, and potentially jeopardize the safety of not only themselves and the child in their arms but also the passengers behind them.
There is nothing – not one single thing – in your luggage that’s worth a human life.
Some in the video had backpacks, laptop cases, and messenger bags draped around them as they fled. While it’s a direct violation of the rules and does not warrant an exception, I could look the other way on these items simply because they were unlikely to delay the evacuation. But jumping down the slide with a rollaboard? Not so much.
This is a very different problem than simply ignoring another one of the flight attendant or pilot commands. This is not the equivalent to leaving your phone on while taxiing to the runway. This is a clear safety issue. It impedes other people, it delays when time is of the essence, and in the process of going down the slide it could rip, tear, or puncture the slide itself. It’s clear passengers were not easily passing down the slide and safely to the runway with their rolling luggage in hand.
Aircraft manufacturers and safety experts determine the amount of exit doors required based on some exits being blocked (in this case, the over the wing exits were not used for this reason) and a strict 90-second escape horizon. That’s based on what fire can do to an aircraft. There have been many examples of people losing their lives because they were not able to get off the aircraft in time.
Serious penalties should be enforced, not by the carrier but by the FAA. Someone who chooses their carry-on over another human being shouldn’t be allowed to fly. And there’s no excuse. It’s in the safety cards at every seat, it’s on the videos (if the aircraft is equipped with IFE), and there’s no doubt the flight attendants would have been screaming for people to leave their luggage and go straight to the forward or aft exits. They chose a bag of clothes instead. It’s shameful, selfish, and could have gotten someone killed.
Further, there’s also a threat on the ground. Fire fighters are racing into a complicated, messy scene, with limited visibility due to smoke. When Asiana 214 crashed in San Francisco after a flight from Seoul