Aviastar TU204 freighter catches fire in Hangzhou

UPlog · Sat Jan 08, 2022 1:20 am

Aviastar TU204 freighter RA-64032 in Cainiao special livery caught fire at Hangzhou airport. Looks to be at the cargo ramp area.

Video:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1479620396286902279

Spacepope · Sat Jan 08, 2022 1:39 am

Well that doesn’t look good for the airframe. Hope nobody was injured.

TheZ · Sat Jan 08, 2022 1:57 am

Wow that was some fire, I wonder what it was hauling...

teriyaki · Sat Jan 08, 2022 2:14 am

That's why you're not allowed to put items with batteries in the cargo-hold. Flammable things burn hot and fast.

Newark727 · Sat Jan 08, 2022 2:31 am

Spacepope wrote:
Well that doesn’t look good for the airframe.

Given that it's a Tu-204 its value may have just increased. :duck:

LTEN11 · Sat Jan 08, 2022 2:53 am

Bit of speed tape, she'll be right.

Spacepope · Sat Jan 08, 2022 4:07 am

Newark727 wrote:
Spacepope wrote:
Well that doesn’t look good for the airframe.

Given that it's a Tu-204 its value may have just increased.

I’m sure someone could use the engines for hauling little green men to the land of Borat right now.

Loss of any freighter right now complicates the whole shuttling stuff around equation.

LAXintl · Sat Jan 08, 2022 4:15 am

Here's an image that was posted

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FIjJT4dUYAA ... name=large

TWA772LR · Sat Jan 08, 2022 5:07 am

LAXintl wrote:
Here's an image that was posted

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FIjJT4dUYAA ... name=large

Speed tape

MDC862 · Sat Jan 08, 2022 6:13 am

Going to need a lot of tape.

Better order a few truck loads.

SRQLOT · Sat Jan 08, 2022 6:52 am

Ummmm did it crash land down a hill? Or go over a speed bump? FYI I’m aware it was sitting on the ramp. Quite concerning it broke in half that easily from a fire. If I were a pilot or a passenger on any of those I would be scared right now a bump in the air might crack the airplane if half!!!

fraspotter · Sat Jan 08, 2022 7:06 am

Those FlexTape commercials sure do come to mind. If it can tape together a boat then why not a TU204?

zeke · Sat Jan 08, 2022 7:18 am

Fortunate it happened on the ground.

packmedic · Sat Jan 08, 2022 8:14 am

SRQLOT wrote:
Ummmm did it crash land down a hill? Or go over a speed bump? FYI I’m aware it was sitting on the ramp. Quite concerning it broke in half that easily from a fire. If I were a pilot or a passenger on any of those I would be scared right now a bump in the air might crack the airplane if half!!!

You do realize how hot lithium battery fires burn, right? Something like 2,000C. Hot enough to melt the aircraft. This isn't just a backyard campfire.

TC957 · Sat Jan 08, 2022 8:26 am

Reminds me of the fire incident that an ET 77F had in China as well. Similar circumstances ?

TheZ · Sat Jan 08, 2022 8:41 am

SRQLOT wrote:
Ummmm did it crash land down a hill? Or go over a speed bump? FYI I’m aware it was sitting on the ramp. Quite concerning it broke in half that easily from a fire. If I were a pilot or a passenger on any of those I would be scared right now a bump in the air might crack the airplane if half!!!

To be fair, no commercial aircraft would survive a fire like that. There's nothing "easy" about it, that's how bad the fire was.

Dufo · Sat Jan 08, 2022 9:12 am

Lithium fire is one of things I fear most when flying out of HKG with 110tons of Chinese crap behind and below my back. Outcome is never good and there is nothing we can do about it.

LTEN11 · Sat Jan 08, 2022 9:22 am

packmedic wrote:
SRQLOT wrote:
Ummmm did it crash land down a hill? Or go over a speed bump? FYI I’m aware it was sitting on the ramp. Quite concerning it broke in half that easily from a fire. If I were a pilot or a passenger on any of those I would be scared right now a bump in the air might crack the airplane if half!!!

You do realize how hot lithium battery fires burn, right? Something like 2,000C. Hot enough to melt the aircraft. This isn't just a backyard campfire.

I suspect you're probably right, but do you have any information or proof that it was lithium batteries ? AvHerald has a mention of 20 tons of general cargo, but realistically that could be pretty much anything from socks to fireworks and everything else in between.

AA737-823 · Sat Jan 08, 2022 9:31 am

SRQLOT wrote:
Ummmm did it crash land down a hill? Or go over a speed bump? FYI I’m aware it was sitting on the ramp. Quite concerning it broke in half that easily from a fire. If I were a pilot or a passenger on any of those I would be scared right now a bump in the air might crack the airplane if half!!!

Well then you'd better not fly on any 737's.

Just ask China Airlines... and that was only a fuel leak!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airl ... 6_fire.jpg

Heavierthanair · Sat Jan 08, 2022 10:07 am

8 crew on a TU 204 ? Would that be the pilots, a navigator and a flight engineer plus backup for each? :rotfl:

Ty134A · Sat Jan 08, 2022 10:41 am

Batteries are a big problem in aviation. I have seen batterie fires of cargo supposed to go on an aircraft. That is not a funny thing - but these batteries are in everything nowadays.

9MMPQ · Sat Jan 08, 2022 11:18 am

Heavierthanair wrote:
8 crew on a TU 204 ? Would that be the pilots, a navigator and a flight engineer plus backup for each?

Double set of crew to avoid a layover i would imagine. Quarantine regulations in China are causing all sorts of alternative crewing solutions.

Spaceship · Sat Jan 08, 2022 11:28 am

8 crew on a TU 204 ? Would that be the pilots, a navigator and a flight engineer plus backup for each?

Heavy set of crew, so a return flight crew. Crew has to stay on the aircraft and return back to the destination airport: The crew are not allowed to enter China due the strict zero Covid policy.

So it will interesting to see what happens to the crew now, and how they are going to get back home.

Theseus · Sat Jan 08, 2022 12:19 pm

Spaceship wrote:
8 crew on a TU 204 ? Would that be the pilots, a navigator and a flight engineer plus backup for each?

Heavy set of crew, so a return flight crew. Crew has to stay on the aircraft and return back to the destination airport: The crew are not allowed to enter China due the strict zero Covid policy.

So it will interesting to see what happens to the crew now, and how they are going to get back home.

Ironically, both crews will now have to find a way to extend their stay in China...

RalXWB · Sat Jan 08, 2022 3:17 pm

Sad to see this happen to an already rare bird.

x1234 · Sat Jan 08, 2022 3:47 pm

Doesn't the TU-204 have 3 pilots due to lack of automation?

Blimpie · Sat Jan 08, 2022 4:28 pm

I thought I read somewhere in the sale brochure that spontaneous fire was a value-added benefit to the TU204?

Joking aside, it is still good that this happened on the ground with no loss of life than at 12'000 feet with eight souls on board going down with a fire bird.

Francoflier · Sat Jan 08, 2022 4:30 pm

There's already a picture on the database... that was fast:

sportzbar · Sat Jan 08, 2022 5:59 pm

Ive noticed people are surprised that the airframe has to put it another way "melted" at the back and there is speculation that it's down to lithium batteries.

The first major fire on the ground that I remember was the Manchester Airport disaster in 1985. No lithium batteries involved there but the sheer intensity of the fire ( the fire station was barely 500 yards from the aircraft and first appliance on site at 75 seconds), melted the rear of the fuselage with the tail section beyond the wings resting on the ground...

ikolkyo · Sat Jan 08, 2022 6:03 pm

Is it a write off??

cedarjet · Sat Jan 08, 2022 6:10 pm

x1234 wrote:
Doesn't the TU-204 have 3 pilots due to lack of automation?

No, if you look at a pic of a Tu-204 cockpit you’ll see it’s extremely minimalist and uncluttered. Barely enough to keep two busy. Some operators might add a relief first officer, a loadmaster, or a flight mechanic (a dedicated crew member to fix broken stuff on turnarounds is a lot cheaper than an aeroplane getting grounded because of a technical) depending on the nature of the trip.

TheZ · Sat Jan 08, 2022 6:24 pm

Francoflier wrote:
There's already a picture on the database... that was fast:

That's a great but terrifying picture. Glad everyone is ok.

Ziyulu · Sat Jan 08, 2022 6:43 pm

I'm surprised this happened in China considering how strict they are with batteries in checked luggage.

JFKalumni · Sat Jan 08, 2022 6:53 pm

TheZ wrote:
SRQLOT wrote:
Ummmm did it crash land down a hill? Or go over a speed bump? FYI I’m aware it was sitting on the ramp. Quite concerning it broke in half that easily from a fire. If I were a pilot or a passenger on any of those I would be scared right now a bump in the air might crack the airplane if half!!!

To be fair, no commercial aircraft would survive a fire like that. There's nothing "easy" about it, that's how bad the fire was.

Exactly !!

Between the fire itself and the possible use of Purple K fire retardant (extremely corrosive to aircraft) this plane was finished from the start.

FlyHappy · Sat Jan 08, 2022 7:13 pm

Ziyulu wrote:
I'm surprised this happened in China considering how strict they are with batteries in checked luggage.

Its a cargo aircraft.
Its departing China; it could literally be filled with batteries.

foxecho · Sat Jan 08, 2022 7:24 pm

ikolkyo wrote:
Is it a write off??

Not on this board

Andrew

SRQLOT · Sat Jan 08, 2022 8:09 pm

To the posters that mentioned other things. Yes I’m aware of the other situations. I was merely pointing to the fact that the cabin cracked like in a crash and was not melted down like in the Air China event. Is there a reason for that? Or does metal crack at high temperature and not melt?? Or the fact that it’s bad quality metal.

mxaxai · Sat Jan 08, 2022 8:46 pm

sportzbar wrote:
Ive noticed people are surprised that the airframe has to put it another way "melted" at the back and there is speculation that it's down to lithium batteries.

The first major fire on the ground that I remember was the Manchester Airport disaster in 1985. No lithium batteries involved there but the sheer intensity of the fire ( the fire station was barely 500 yards from the aircraft and first appliance on site at 75 seconds), melted the rear of the fuselage with the tail section beyond the wings resting on the ground...

Aluminum has a really low melting point (for construction materials). The BA 777 in Las Vegas a few years back also had a big chunk of her fuselage skin melted by burning fuel on the ground. On top of that, high temperatures will already weaken any metal, even if it doesn't melt outright.

Batteries are a possible ignition source but any other flammable cargo could create high enough temperatures for the damage that we can see.

Noray · Sat Jan 08, 2022 10:19 pm

SRQLOT wrote:
To the posters that mentioned other things. Yes I’m aware of the other situations. I was merely pointing to the fact that the cabin cracked like in a crash and was not melted down like in the Air China event. Is there a reason for that? Or does metal crack at high temperature and not melt?? Or the fact that it’s bad quality metal.

Perhaps the weight of the extinguishing water that had entered the fuselage through the holes in the roof played a role. Also note that hot metal may lose its strength long before it melts.

Noray · Sun Jan 09, 2022 2:35 am

And as you can see in the video, the front section above the nose gear is largely destroyed by the fire. This probably made the nose gear collapse so that the nose dropped to the ground (see photographs), which may have caused the crack behind the wings. Just my speculation from looking at the images.

TheZ · Sun Jan 09, 2022 3:05 am

SRQLOT wrote:
To the posters that mentioned other things. Yes I’m aware of the other situations. I was merely pointing to the fact that the cabin cracked like in a crash and was not melted down like in the Air China event. Is there a reason for that? Or does metal crack at high temperature and not melt?? Or the fact that it’s bad quality metal.

Again, while we don't know the exact cause, this was clearly a devastating fire, and at this point there's no point blaming the aircraft until more information comes out. These are rare enough events where comparisons aren't really useful especially when the extent of the destruction is not known.

Boeing757100 · Sun Jan 09, 2022 2:23 pm

So it is pretty possible that a lithium ion ignition caused the fire, but what if the fire was set deliberately? It isn't likely, but then again, the idea of it is not impossible. But then again, who even knows of a motive for whoever set the fire....

Phosphorus · Sun Jan 09, 2022 3:55 pm

Russian aviation forums speculate also (in addition to lithium batteries inside "general cargo") on a hypothesis of oxygen system being a potential source of initial fire.

To add some fuel to conspiracy theories -- the frame was due for airworthiness expiration in a few months, apparently.
Aviastar has a Boeing fleet, in addition to its Tupolev frames. FWIW.

Fitlikemin · Sun Jan 09, 2022 4:08 pm

Altogether now.... that'll buff out. :mrgreen:

debonair · Sun Jan 09, 2022 11:29 pm

Francoflier wrote:
There's already a picture on the database... that was fast:

No sign of slides, but the door is detached... Any idea why? Or did the crew an evacuation only through the cockpit windows?

Phosphorus · Tue Jan 18, 2022 10:34 am

Talk of the town continues to point to oxygen system as the place, where the fire began. Waiting for something more official to confirm or deny this.

WayexTDI · Tue Jan 18, 2022 3:01 pm

Ziyulu wrote:
I'm surprised this happened in China considering how strict they are with batteries in checked luggage.

There was no checked luggage, it was a cargo airplane.

FlyHossD · Tue Jan 18, 2022 8:04 pm

WayexTDI wrote:
Ziyulu wrote:
I'm surprised this happened in China considering how strict they are with batteries in checked luggage.

There was no checked luggage, it was a cargo airplane.

And not the first cargo jet to burn at the gate either:

https://avherald.com/h?article=4da46e92&opt=0

rbavfan · Wed Jan 19, 2022 1:06 am

teriyaki wrote:
That's why you're not allowed to put items with batteries in the cargo-hold. Flammable things burn hot and fast.

Do they know yet if it was battery Cargo?

rbavfan · Wed Jan 19, 2022 1:07 am

Newark727 wrote:
Spacepope wrote:
Well that doesn’t look good for the airframe.

Given that it's a Tu-204 its value may have just increased.

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