Flightmech, I was asking that question earlier, how easy/difficult would it be to determine where a fire originated (if this was indeed the case with this flight) I know in buildings it's do-able, but does it all depend on the actual condition and location of the aircraft remains at the scene?
That is, does tracing an origin/shipper of a package all depend on how the aircraft ends up?
I'm also curious (sorry for the slight drift but it interests me) in te training done for shippers these days, is there any emphasis given to the actual consequences of shipping something forbidden by air, by disguising it as something it's not? Personally I was shown some pictures/video, but this may have been more due to the fact the guy taking the course was formerly a pilot rather than the company SOP itself...
As an FA, it does concern me that while they train us that fire is the worst possible onboard emergency, I've never heard a time frame given. Perhaps if we all knew that we only (statistically speaking) have 15minutes at best, it would make the crew that bit more aware of keeping alert for signs of fire in-flight (yes I am aware UPS was a cargo flight without FAs, but the principle remains.) I once had a (thankfully false alarm) smoke situation, once the captain informed me we were making an emergency descent, I can tell you my eyes were glued on my watch, if sheer will could have made time slow down I'm sure it did. Luckily not a real fire in that case but nonetheless a very scary situation!!!