Originally Posted by
FullWings
… outside the simulator it is exceedingly unlikely that you will encounter a persistent airborne engine fire which has survived a correctly executed drill. …
[my underlining]
“Correctly executed” being the important phrase.
There was an article on the Safety First app from Airbus in May ‘22 where delayed application of a fire drill on a A330 resulted in reignition after both bottles had been discharged, so the possibility of a fire after a drill has been carried out does exist.
Details below copied from the article, in the interests of sharing safety information. All copyright belongs the Airbus.
Really worth reading the whole thing, but there isn’t an easy way to link to it. I’d recommend the app!
An A330 aircraft departed for a long-range flight. The aircraft was in CONF 2 for the takeoff. The takeoff roll was normal, but the
ENG 2 FIRE red ECAM alert triggered
(T0) 17 s after liftoff. The flight crew continued the climb. The engine display showed stable engine parameters for both engines.
At T0 + 51 s, the aircraft reached 2 400 ft RA. The PF set the engine 2 thrust lever to IDLE and pushed the engine 1 thrust lever to TOGA.
At T0 + 52 s, the PF set the engine 1 thrust lever to MCT and this caused the autothrust to engage in thrust mode.
At T0 + 2 min 27 s, the flight crew set the engine 2 master lever to OFF.
At T0 + 2 min 43 s, the flight crew pressed the ENG FIRE pushbutton and discharged AGENT 1 followed by AGENT 2. The
ENG 2 FIRE alert remained after both agents were discharged.
At T0 + 3 min 38 s, the flight crew engaged the autopilot and leveled off the aircraft at 7 000 ft.
At T0 + 6 min 31 s, the flight crew started the APU, which provided the electrical power supply to the right side.
At T0 + 9 min 39 s, the EGT indication for engine 2 started to increase, even though it had shown decreasing EGT from the time when the engine 2 master lever was set to OFF.
At T0 + 10 min 03 s, the
ENG 2 FIRE alert stopped and the
ENG 2 FIRE DET FAULT amber ECAM alert triggered.
At T0 + 11 min 23 s, the
ENG 2 EGT OVERLIMIT amber ECAM alert triggered when engine 2 EGT reached 600 °C.
At T0 + 15 min 09 s, the engine 2 N1 value became invalid.
At T0 + 17 min 35 s, the engine 2 EGT reached a peak value of 801 °C.
At T0 + 25 min 02 s, the aircraft touched down on the runway and safely came to a stop. Smoke and flames coming from engine 2 were seen. The fire brigade arrived and extinguished the fire.