Uruguay Airline Evacuates Passengers Twice

An Uruguayan airline says that passengers on an international flight had to be evacuated from planes twice on the same trip.

The Pluna airline says in a statement that passengers had boarded a flight from Montevideo from Buenos Aires early Wednesday, but had to disembark when a technical problem involving the fuel system was found. Firefighters also were summoned.

Passengers were put aboard another plane, but the pilot aborted his takeoff because of a strange smell. The airline says the odor may have resulted from recent maintenance.

Finally the passengers were put aboard another flight and reached their destination.