Jet with 21 people aboard crashes, explodes during takeoff — and everyone lives

A plane carrying 21 people has crashed and exploded in flames, but miraculously, everyone escaped the wreckage with their lives.

A passenger jet with 21 people aboard crashed on Tuesday while attempting to take off from an airport in Houston, Texas.

Miraculously, only one person was reported injured.

Television images showed fire fighters spraying water onto the burning remains of the plane, which came to a halt across a track in a field, surrounded by trees and bushes.

The fuselage was reduced to ashes, with only the tail section surviving as black smoke poured from the wreckage.

The passenger jet crashed and erupted into flames in a field near Houston Executive Airport in Brookshire, Texas. Picture: FOX 26 Houston

“Fortunately all 21 passengers including three crew members were reported as safely evacuated from this twin-engine jet before it was fully engulfed in flames,” the Katy Fire Department said in a statement.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-87 plane was taking off from Houston Executive Airport, Brookshire, bound for Boston when it crashed, officials said.

Local reports said it was taking fans to watch a play-off baseball game between the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday evening (US time).

Emergency crews were on the scene of a fiery plane crash in Waller County, Texas on Oct. 19, 2021. Picture:

Tim Gibson, director of the Waller Harris county emergency services, said the passengers and crew “were stunned, they were very, very stunned, but they did all self-extricate.”

“We’re always expecting the worst but hoping for the best — in today, we absolutely positively got the best outcome we can hope for on this incident,” Mr Gibson told a press conference.

He said fire crews had extinguished the fire “after substantial effort” to control burning jet fuel.

Waller County Judge Trey Duhon said on Facebook that the plane was departing to the north when it had trouble gaining altitude, crossed a road and came to rest in the field.

Officials said one passenger was a 10-year old child, and one person was treated for back pain after the crash.

A manufacturing certificate for the twin-engine MD-87 was issued in 2015. It had a 172-seat capacity.

The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the probe into the crash with assistance from the FAA.

- with the New York Post and AFP