DENVER (AP) — A fire on an American Airlines plane after it diverted midflight and landed at Denver International Airport sent passengers fleeing onto a wing in a fraught evacuation amid billowing clouds of smoke.

Airport officials said 12 people were taken to hospitals with minor injuries.

The country has seen a recent spate of aviation disasters and close calls stoking fears about air travel, though flying remains a safe way to travel.

Recent on-the-ground accidents included a plane that crashed and flipped over upon landing in Toronto and a Japan Airlines plane that clipped a parked Delta plane while it was taxiing at the Seattle airport.

Flight 1006 was headed from Colorado Springs to Dallas Fort Worth on Thursday but diverted to Denver after the crew reported engine vibrations. It landed safely around 5:15 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. An engine on the Boeing 737-800 caught fire as it taxied to the gate, the FAA added.

Passengers described people exiting the plane onto its left wing, as an engine beneath the right wing burned and black smoke surrounded the aircraft. They lined up and got to the ground using slides and ladders brought over by ground crews, according to the FAA, video footage and passenger interviews.

All 172 passengers and six crew members were safely evacuated, authorities said. American Airlines referred questions about the people taken to hospitals to local officials.

Smoke in cabin

Passenger Hani Levi said she felt a “very strong vibration” after the plane took off, followed later by an announcement that there would an emergency landing emergency landing in Denver due to an apparent engine problem.

As the plane taxied to the gate, the former military airplane mechanic from Las Vegas who was sitting in a window seat, saw smoke coming from the wing and then fire. A passenger said to evacuate but Levi said some people were panicking and a mother screamed that she needed to get off with her two children, one of whom tried to run toward the front of the plane, she said.

Black smoke filled the cabin as people crowded the exit, but Levi had to remain seated because a disabled woman was between her and the aisle. As they waited for a wheelchair, Levi watched black smoke and flames spitting from the wing just feet from her seat. People could be heard jostling to get off the plane in videos Levi took, with one person saying “orderly, orderly” and another saying “go, go.”

“I chose to stay calm,” said Levi, who said she tried to breathe deeply to avoid inhaling the smoke.

Ten people were taken to the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora but spokesperson Kelli Christensen said she did not have an update on how many were there Friday.

A replacement plane and crew took passengers to Dallas-Fort Worth, the airline said. The flight landed Friday around 5 a.m. local time, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.

Are fires common?

American Airlines said in a statement that the flight experienced an engine-related issue after taxiing to the gate. There was no immediate clarification on exactly when the plane caught fire.

Engine fires are rare and crews trained to deal with them, according to aviation expert Steven Wallace. They typically are not catastrophic even if they occur in the air since planes can fly with a single engine, he said.

“A pilot going to work for an airline today could likely fly for 30 years and never experience an engine failure,” said Wallace, a former director of the FAA’s accident investigations office.

Two engine fires made news in recent weeks: A fire on a United Airlines flight Feb. 2 as it was preparing to take off from Houston and a March 1 fire on a FedEx cargo plane that made an emergency landing in New Jersey following a bird strike.