Originally Posted by
DaveReidUK
That description doesn't match any Tu-154 accident that I can recall.
TU-154 ground fire was a more recent fatal incident -
My mistake - there was not a large loss of life
but still a nasty incident.
On 1 January 2011, Kolavia Flight 348, on a domestic scheduled passenger flight with 124 passengers from Surgut to Moscow, caught fire, exploded and burned down while taxiing out for take-off.
Passengers were evacuated, but three were killed and 43 injured.
As the aircraft was being pushed back and was starting its engines, a fire developed in the centre section of the fuselage, quickly spreading inside the passenger cabin.
The engines and the APU were immediately shut down and the emergency slides were deployed for an emergency evacuation.
Within four minutes, fire engines reached the Tupolev and started dousing the flames with foam, but were hampered by the presence of many survivors near the aircraft. By 10:20, the aircraft was completely ablaze, with aviation fuel leaking and spreading the flames across the apron.
A massive explosion occurred moments after the passengers had left the aircraft.
The fire was brought under control at around 10:40; by then, only the tail section and the outer portion of the wings had survived the blaze.
Three passengers were killed and 43 were injured, four critically.
A subsequent investigation concluded that the fire had started due to an electrical short circuit in an electric panel, confirming that the probable cause of the fire was an arc occurring in that electric panel on the right side of the central fuselage.
Shortly after engine start, the crew connected the generators to the electrical network as usual, but badly worn out contactors failed to operate properly, resulting in an abnormal circuit configuration that produced currents 10 to 20 times higher than their nominal values, giving rise to an electrical arc.
No maintenance schedule existed for the electric board in question.
Russia would ground all Tu-154Bs after the fatal fire pending the RAK investigation.