SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – A Frontier flight from San Diego to Las Vegas landed in flames and smoke about a month ago. No one was injured, but the 200 passengers on board, including Eydith Kauffman of Normal Heights, were left without an explanation of what went wrong.

“This was a terrible experience,” Kauffman said.

ABC 10News spoke with Kauffman for the first time a few days after the incident. 10News reporter Perla Shaheen contacted him on Wednesday and said he was still traumatized.

“What made the trauma and stress of this accident even worse was the absolute lack of communication,” Kauffman said.

A new preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board provides new details about what happened. It shows a fan meant to cool electrical equipment that has stopped working.

“When that fan fails, if it fails badly, it creates smoke and gives you that pungent smell,” said former San Diego commercial pilot Joe Graham.

Flight attendants said the smell was similar to burning tires and plastic. Kauffman put on his mask to prevent this.

“I wasn’t surprised to see there were electrical problems because we could smell the exhaust and it smelled like an electrical problem,” Kauffman said.

The report states that aircraft systems began to fail. The captain could not find the source of the odor and implemented procedures to prevent fire. This includes shutting down some electrical systems and landing the plane without an autopilot or anti-skid mechanisms.

“When you land a plane at 100 miles per hour, you can’t rely on your own braking,” Graham said. “So there’s a big electrically operated system called the anti-slip. If that doesn’t work, then you have to rely on your own touch.”

However, according to the report, the captain did not pay attention to how hard he pressed the brakes. The plane’s tires exploded seconds after touching the runway; There was smoke and fire. Fire crews quickly extinguished the flames and allowed the passengers to get out of the vehicle using the stairs. It is not yet known what caused the fire.

“I think we’re seeing more and more problems with planes and airlines, and that’s not a responsibility to take lightly,” Kauffman said.

Kauffman said he is concerned about flying again and hopes to get more answers in the Safety Board’s final report. NTSB is still investigating the incident. 10News contacted Frontier Airlines for a statement but said they could not comment on an active investigation.