ET 787 On Fire At Heathrow

hotplane · Fri Jul 12, 2013 3:58 pm

Heathrow director advising of an aircraft fire at LHR. No movements at present as no cover available to other aircraft.

[Edited 2013-07-12 08:59:12]

hotplane · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:04 pm

A reliable source has advised that it involves Ethiopian 787 ET-AOP.

art · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:09 pm

Quoting hotplane (Reply 1):
A reliable source has advised that it involves Ethiopian 787 ET-AOP.

BBC Radio 4 reports it involves an Ethiopian aircraft, too.

TupolevTu154 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:11 pm

https://twitter.com/DaPakiGuy/status/355716645118943234/photo/1

Aircraft diverting. I'm watching a VS A346 on approach to LGW as we speak.

Birdwatching · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:11 pm

Quoting hotplane (Reply 1):
787

Not this again!

Soren

pvjin · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:11 pm

Doesn't look too good if that's true, another B787 incident involving fire...

BlueShamu330s · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:11 pm

This and the Thomson Dream)liner currently diverting into MAN; not a good day for the 787.

Rgds

kq747 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:11 pm

Just got a BBC alert about this... cant seem to find anymore info though.

eastern747 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:12 pm

OMG Here we go again!

tistpaa727 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:12 pm

Well, that's not good for the 787 program.

From the pictures on Twitter, looks like the 787 was parked at the gate.

https://twitter.com/DaPakiGuy/status/355716645118943234/photo/1

Edit: Link to pic added

[Edited 2013-07-12 09:15:04]

starbucks · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:12 pm

Pic on Twitter:

http://pic.twitter.com/UhS1Ph8Mpw

TupolevTu154 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:14 pm

http://fr24.com/VIR652W

Well at least the LOS pax had a nice tour of Surrey! Keeping an eye out for any more diversions.

Edit: Just got info of the following having diverted to LGW;

G-MIDO
G-EUPH
F-GRHM
G-VBUG
G-EUYJ
EC-JTR
LZ-FBB
D-AISD
G-EUPL

Amazing how quickly things start to fall apart!

[Edited 2013-07-12 09:17:35]

GCPET · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:15 pm

BBC are quick on the alerts! Hope it's not the playing up again... they're not having the best year... or day for that matter :

GCPET

readytotaxi · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:16 pm

Yep, very quiet here in London area.

LHR

Take a look at Flightradar24.com some aircraft moving from one stack to another.

[Edited 2013-07-12 09:20:24]

hotplane · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:16 pm

Photo now on Twitter.

ThomasCook · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:16 pm

Sky News showing live footage. Aircraft was empty; fire retardant foam around the aircraft; door R2,3,4 all open but no slide deployment.

OA260 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:16 pm

nicholasjet · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:17 pm

smoke from the APU exhaust? oh dear...

fcogafa · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:17 pm

Looks like it is parked right next to the fire station, handy!

Another grounding must be immenant?

slinky09 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:18 pm

Whatever the cause, and it could at this stage be many things, this news is going to flash around the world and is not going to help people's perceptions of the 787. Oh dear. Apparently no passengers on board, fire engines using form, and Heathrow runways shut (presumably while the fire crews deal with what they have to do).

B747forever · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:19 pm

Oh no, not again

.

Hopefully we won't see another grounding. Have a UA 787 flight coming up in less than 3 weeks.

e195 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:19 pm

maybe too early, but if they have 'foamed' the aircraft, how easy is it to use again?

that foam is spread quite far up and down the ground

E195

NYC777 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:19 pm

Here we go again....sigh.

nicholasjet · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:21 pm

maybe we should just go back to steam power. lot less complicated.

OA260 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:23 pm

At this rate Boeing will be paying compensation to airports having to close their runways not just customers! Its getting beyond belief.

NYC777 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:24 pm

Maybe someone left a lit cigarette on the plane and......

[Edited 2013-07-12 09:30:01]

slinky09 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:26 pm

Quoting NYC777 (Reply 27):
Maybe someone left a light cigarette on the plane and......

Well it looks like its parked up on the stands between T3 and T5, so well after passengers and crew left and waiting to be towed back to gate for the next flight. Should have been empty then and shut down ...

SKAirbus · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:27 pm

I'm flying LGW-OSL-LGW on the 787 in a few weeks... Hope it isn't grounded!

London Fire Brigade have just tweeted they are on their way to assist. Hope the fire in contained! Worrying that the airport crews can't handle this alone, unless the London fire brigade are going to take over so that the airport crews can provide cover for the runways and allow them to open again?

nicholasjet · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:28 pm

"stranded on the runway" lol. Sky news messing up the reports now!

readytotaxi · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:28 pm

Will you look at this !!

dizzy

Some dizzy passengers. Really is the wrong time of evening for this to happen.

hotplane · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:29 pm

This aircraft arrived at 0630 this morning and, as usual, was towed to a remote stand around 40 minutes later prior to the scheduled evening departure. One good thing was it was parked just yards from the western fire station.

[Edited 2013-07-12 09:30:41]

Clydenairways · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:30 pm

Hard to tell from the pic to tell where the fire was, i hope it's not aircraft related and maybe something like a rubbish bag fire in the galley.

travelavnut · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:30 pm

Well this sucks, I really hoped the 787 issues where for the most part over

I feel the chance of this not being the battery are quite slim, right?

Gingersnap · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:30 pm

I love Boeing (just been on a 737 the past 3 hours), but this is beyond a joke now.

They've screwed this one up methinks

uta999 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:31 pm

The two 787 incidents could be related. When was the fire at LHR and was the Thomson 126 ordered back after?

NYC777 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:32 pm

Quoting hotplane (Reply 33):
This aircraft arrived at 0630 this morning and, as usual, was towed to a remote stand around 40 minutes later prior to departure to the evening departure. One good thing was it was parked just yards from the western fire station.

Weird, if it arrived early in the morning 6:30 London time and almost 12 hours had past until this fire started. I assume that the pilots shut down all the electrical systems after the flight arrived knowing that they don't need to be turned on until later in the evening. What time was the departure from LHR supposed to be?

SASDC8 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:33 pm

Quoting NYC777 (Reply 27):
Maybe someone left a light cigarette on the plane and......

We can only hope!

On a more serious part if there has been a fire; this is not exactly good news for the 787 program and Boeing.

NYC777 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:33 pm

Quoting travelavnut (Reply 35):
Well this sucks, I really hoped the 787 issues where for the most part over

I feel the chance of this not being the battery are quite slim, right?

We don't know the cause so no one should jump to conclusions. Someone also tell the media that.

travelavnut · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:34 pm

Quoting NYC777 (Reply 38):
Weird, if it arrived early in the morning 6:30 London time and almost 12 hours had past until this fire started. I assume that the pilots shut down all the electrical systems after the flight arrived knowing that they don't need to be turned on until later in the evening. What time was the departure from LHR supposed to be?

Could have happened when they connected ground power or the started the APU... (if it is indeed the battery problem)

AeroWesty · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:34 pm

Quoting NYC777 (Reply 38):
What time was the departure from LHR supposed to be?

9pm BST, so this fire was about 4 hours prior to departure.

hotplane · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:34 pm

Scheduled departure time is 2100

kazim786 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:35 pm

I'm sensing a grounding of all 787s in the looming.

bendewire · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:35 pm

I sincerely hope this is not another 787 issue! I really thought this amazing plane had got past all its teething problems, however, until it is known exactly what is happiening/cause then A netters stop acting like the tabloid press and speculating what has happened, the Thomson 787 returning to Manchester does anyone KNOW what it was for or again are we playing guessing games.

The 787 is at the forefront of aircraft design and like most new technology it will experience problems Apollo 13, the Titanic the A380 all had there issues

7BOEING7 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:35 pm

Quoting travelavnut (Reply 35):
I feel the chance of this not being the battery are quite slim, right?

Interesting to note, the cargo bays are NOT open. One would think if there was a battery issue they would be.

e195 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:35 pm

there are burn marks above the aft of the plane

E195

Ronaldo747 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:36 pm

Well .. no hasty conclusions, guys. It could even be a broken coffee maker or oven. Let's wait for the examinations.

NYC777 · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:38 pm

Quoting travelavnut (Reply 42):
Could have happened when they connected ground power or the started the APU... (if it is indeed the battery problem)

Quoting AeroWesty (Reply 43):
9pm BST, so this fire was about 4 hours prior to departure.

From the pics I've seen, it doesn't appear that the cargo doors were opened like they were when the JAL '87 caught fire in Boston.

Would the aircraft be powered on 3- 4 hours before departure and at a remote stand? I'm assuming that there is no one on the aircraft at that point, even the pilots. I'm wondering if the pilots didn't power down the aircraft competely and perhaps a unit was left on?

Luftfahrer · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:38 pm

Well, the first thing to do when starting up the aircraft is to turn on the battery and then the APU/GPU. Go figure...

TimRees · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:39 pm

I'm currently stuck in departures T5. Getting busier by the minute.
Why is the entire airport shut if the fire was on a stand? BA staff just saying they know nothing about when airport will reopen. Anyone know what's going on?

travelavnut · Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:39 pm

Quoting NYC777 (Reply 53):
it doesn't appear that the cargo doors were opened like they were when the JAL '87 caught fire in Boston.

Pardon my ignorance, but where are the batteries located?

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