A passenger aircraft carrying 169 passengers and seven crew members burst into flames at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea, on Tuesday night, triggering a swift and dramatic evacuation.

An Airbus plane belonging to South Korean carrier Air Busan caught fire on Tuesday at Gimhae International Airport in the country's south while preparing for departure to Hong Kong, fire authorities said.

South Korean officials are launching an investigation into the cause of the fire that engulfed an Air Busan passenger plane, with eyewitness accounts suggesting a power bank may have sparked the blaze.

A passenger plane has caught fire before takeoff at an airport in South Korea, but all 176 people on board have been safely evacuated.

The fire broke out in the back of the cabin, officials said. All 176 people on board, including passengers and crew members, were evacuated, some with minor injuries.

SEOUL: An Air Busan plane caught fire at Gimhae International Airport in Busan in South Korea on Tuesday (Jan 28) and all 169 passengers and seven crew members evacuated without casualties, Yonhap news agency reported,

An investigation into a fire that engulfed an Air Busan plane at a South Korean airport this week is being slowed by a large amount of fuel and oxygen still on board, an air crash investigation official told Reuters.

The authorities decided to proceed with the joint investigation to determine the cause of the recent blaze aboard an Air Busan without first removing the aviation fuel, the Transport Ministry announced Friday.

Passengers evacuated from an Air Busan plane that was engulfed in flames this week at a South Korean airport will have their checked baggage returned to them, after authorities on Friday deemed the jet safe for a full investigation.