A China Airlines jet exploded into flames at an airport in Okinawa after arriving from Taiwan Monday, but all 165 people aboard escaped alive, officials said. The 157 passengers — including two small children — fled the Boeing 737-800 unhurt on inflated emergency slides just minutes before the plane burst into a fireball, Transport Ministry official Akihiko Tamura told reporters. The eight-member crew also safely left the plane, China Airlines spokesman Sun Hung-wen told reporters in Taipei. Sun said the aircraft skidded on the tarmac on its way from the runway to the gate after landing, starting a fire that prompted the emergency exit. "The fire started when the left engine exploded, a minute after the aircraft entered the parking spot," Tamura was quoted as saying.
