Three passengers opened an emergency exit and climbed onto the wing of a Utair plane after one of its engines appeared to catch fire while it was taxiing at Moscow's Vnukovo International Airport.
Citing local media, The Independent reported the panicked passengers complained that the cabin crew aboard the Makhachkala-bound flight failed to provide adequate instructions and ignored the passengers' distress after flames became visible from the windows.
One passenger captured video of the bright orange flames coming from one of the Boeing 737's engines.
The Russian carrier denied that there was ever any threat to passengers. "This was an ordinary situation, the plane was in order, passengers were in no danger," a Utair spokesperson told Russia's RBC news.
The airline said the flames were caused by disrupted air flow during the starting of the engine. However, passengers were eventually transferred onto a different aircraft.
The two men and woman who exited the plane onto the wing were brought in for questioning.
The incident comes not long after Russian low-cost carrier Pobeda Airlines made headlines for the wrong reasons when a five-month-old girl suffered serious head injuries after falling from her portable cradle while being carried off of a flight by a male crew member in Surgut, Russia.
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