LAS VEGAS — The 157 passengers aboard British Airways Flight 2276 were settled into their seats for the 10-hour flight from Las Vegas to London when the aircraft’s left side engine caught fire.

Those aboard fled down emergency slides and across the tarmac as flames leaped from the British Airways Boeing 777-200 and dark black smoke billowed.

Reggie Bugmuncher, of Philadelphia, was charging her phone and waiting at a gate Tuesday for her flight from McCarran International Airport when she heard people saying, “Oh, my God.” She looked out and saw “bursts of flames coming out of the middle of the plane.”

“Everyone ran to the windows and people were standing on their chairs, looking out, holding their breath with their hands over their mouths,” Bugmuncher said.

The plane’s emergency slides deployed and passengers quickly fled. She said it was a “bit more orderly” than she would have expected given the dramatic nature of the fire and smoke.