That pesky wiring in the forward cargo compartment of Boeing 747s...
Barry
Sun, Aug 11 2002 12:17 AM AEST
Fire forces emergency landing in Sydney
A British Airways flight was forced to make an emergency landing at Sydney
airport yesterday afternoon, when a fire broke out on board just after it took
off.
A spokesman for Airservices Australia says no-one was injured during the
incident, which occurred just minutes after BA Flight 16 left Sydney for
Singapore with 270 people onboard.
"At about 4:10pm, having literally gone about five nautical miles north of
Sydney, the captain) declared a Mayday and sought to return immediately to
Sydney airport," the spokesman said.
Airport emergency services closed runways to all other traffic and called in
police, fire brigade and ambulance services to back up the airport's response
team.
The jumbo jet landed without incident and passengers were evacuated safely down
mobile stairways after the plane came to a halt on the tarmac.
One of the passengers, Mike Souter, says the cabin was very warm before
take-off but the pilot said the temperature would drop after take-off.
Mr Souter says passengers were informed shortly after take-off that there was a
fire in the plane's hold.
"There was quite a strong smell of smoke and quite visibly the cabin crew were
alarmed by the situation," he said.
Officials have confirmed an alarm in the forward cargo hold of the Boeing
747-400 alerted cockpit crew to the fire and emergency staff on the ground
later said a small electrical fire had broken out.
"Fire crews say there was a small electrical wiring fire in the forward cargo
hold which was extinguished by the onboard extinguisher system," the
Airservices
Australia spokesman said.
He added that there was "about a metre-square of fire damage."
BA said in a statement that the problem appeared to have been caused by faulty
wiring to a refrigerator in one of the plane's galleys.
An airline spokeswoman says company officials are assessing whether the
aircraft will be able to continue its
journey.