Passenger in Philly plane crash snaps ‘selfie’ seen ’round the world

The earliest reports came from passengers themselves, who took cell-phone videos and photos of the scene.

After blowing a tire during take off last night at Philadelphia International Airport, US Airways Flight 1702 sustained damage to its nose gear and came crashing back to the ground.

“The plane started smoking and it smelled like fire and people were yelling, evacuate!,” said Harriton High School senior Hannah Udren, who described a chaotic scene inside the cabin during the moments after the accident. “People had to push open the emergency exits, and we all had to slide down the rafts to get out of the plane and run as far away as we could.”

The pilots and flight crew quickly evacuated all 149 passengers, two of whom requested medical attention but were later released from the hospital.

Many of the early reports came from the passengers themselves, who took cell-phone videos and photos of the aftermath.

One of those photos, which quickly became an Internet hit, shows Udren posing with the plane’s damaged fuselage in the background. “It was around a minute after. I was like the second person out so I just ran really far. And then I wanted to call my mom and tell her and I knew she’d be like, stop lying to me. So I decided to take a video and a picture and send it to her,” said Udren, describing the now-infamous “selfie.”

Earlier this morning, the plane was moved to a hanger so investigators can attempt to determine the cause of the accident.. All runways have been reopened.