Oh well may as well put my pennies worth in to mix also:
By looking at the limited quality of the photographs of the damage to this aircraft. a full section replacement will most probably be carried out.
As the Aircraft is manufactured as a complete section by section structure (not panelised) any permanent repair would obviously in my opinion have to the same.
Nobody is debating that this could or could not be an electrical fault causing the fire. If it is an electrical fault then the batteries are related as they are the primary electrical system. We will just have to wait see what the AAIB investigation throws up....
as for the Fire Service. If they had 2 incidents ongoing the OIC would close the Airport as he could not guarantee response times. Also as stated before once the larger tenders were emptied they would have to be topped up again before any decent CAT level could be restored. So bravo to the OIC for taking what would have been a very challenged decision but the I believe to the correct one
