A JetBlue flight aborted takeoff on the John F. Kennedy Airport runway Saturday after a fire was reported on board, officials said.
The California-bound craft was preparing for departure around 8:30 p.m. when the crew told the control tower of the apparent problem, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The entire plane — which has a capacity for roughly 180 passengers — was evacuated so fire officials could extinguish the reported flames, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
A false report started being spread online that a plane had gone off a runway and was ablaze; the FDNY arrived within minutes and found they needed to take no action as the craft was safe and there was no blaze.
The issue on the Airbus 321 turned out to be an “engine problem,” the FAA ruled without elaborating.
All the passengers had to disembark the plane, and there were no injuries.
JetBlue’s maintenance team investigated the problem, which was seemingly resolved a few hours later.
The plane finally departed at 12:10 a.m., five hours after it was initially scheduled to take off, Flight Aware data shows.
How the mechanical issue was misinterpreted as a fire scare is not clear. JetBlue did not respond to messages left by The Post.
The FAA is investigating the incident.
The incident aboard the Airbus comes as officials are investigating repeated problems aboard 737 planes in the US and abroad, including a panel falling off an Alaska Airlines jet.
