Slides used to evacuate 50 people from plane after engine fire at Vancouver airport

A photo taken July 12, 2025 from inside Vancouver International Airport shows the emergency slide deployed on the side of a WestJet plane after an engine caught fire.

Emergency slides were used to evacuate dozens of passengers from a plane at Vancouver International Airport on Saturday evening, WestJet said.

The flight, which departed Tampa International Airport, arrived at the Vancouver airport gate at around 11 p.m. local time when one of the engines caught “a small fire in the exit section.”

“Out of an abundance of caution, the crew decided to quickly evacuate the approximately 50 remaining passengers on board via the slides,” a WestJet spokesperson said in a statement. “Fortunately, no injuries were reported and the aircraft has been taken out of service for repairs.”

A spokesperson for the Vancouver airport said airport fire crews were on scene but did not need to intervene as “the aircraft’s internal systems extinguished the small fire.” The incident did not disrupt flight schedules or airport operations.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has also dispatched a team to “gather information and investigate the incident.”

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