There has been a fire at London Heathrow Airport today which has required the airport to close for a while according to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23294760.
The damaged aircraft – images via BBC News
Heathrow Airport was closed between 16:30BST and 18:00BST. Arrivals and departures were suspended, but the airport has reopened with delays stacking up through the evening, with flights diverted. Delays are also showing at Gatwick and Stansted Airport.
The plane was on the ground parked. No passengers were reported to be aboard during the fire
The plane involved is an Ethiopian Airlines plane – registered as ET-AOP – A Boeing 787 Dreamliner. This was the first Dreamliner to re-enter service after the worldwide grounding of the 787 fleet.
The aircraft arrived at 06:40BST this morning, and was not due to depart until 21:00BST, with the aircraft parked in a remote stand.
According to the airport the fire was an internal fire aboard the aircraft.The UK Air Accident Investigation Branch and US National Transportation Safety Board are sending teams to investigate. Boeing have personnel on the ground at Heathrow and are working to fully understand what has happened too.
Whilst the fire cannot be proved to be a battery fire, this already has had a hit on Boeing’s stock which has dropped 7% on the news of the incident – regaining stock price slowly with a net 2% stock price drop.
I’ll emphasis this again – There is currently no report of this fire being linked to the battery system aboard this 787.
Ethiopian Airlines has released a statement with the following:
Today on Friday, 12 July 2013, smoke was detected from Ethiopian Airlines B787 aircraft with registration number ET-AOP, which was parked at London Heathrow airport for more than eight hours.
The aircraft was empty when the incident was observed. The cause of the incident is under investigation by all concerned.
Ethiopian is a multi-award winning airline and a member of Star Alliance since 2011 registering an average growth of 25% in the past seven years.
In addition, a Thomson Airways 787 returned back to Manchester after what the airline describes as a”technical issue”,and the aircraft returned as a precautionary measure. The plane was operating a Manchester to Orlando – Sanford service as flight TOM126. Passengers have since disembarked and are being flown on a different aircraft.
Not a good day for the 787 in the least.
I think I will avoid flights on the 787, for the time being.