PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - SQ-368 (engine & wing on fire) final report out
Old 27th Jun 2016, 11:13
  #99 (permalink)  
bud leon
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
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So many people here getting outraged without any knowledge of the situation aside from a couple of short videos, and also apparently without too much knowledge of fire behaviour.

Firstly a five minute response time is not a bad response time especially if the aircraft had to roll out being heavy. I've had personal experience getting fire appliances to work. It takes longer than you imagine. When you are doing it it feels like an eternity.

Secondly it's clear there is fuel leaking from the wing. That means it could easily spread under the fuselage and be present on the left side of the aircraft. The wing being freely on fire in this situation is much more stable than the kind of fire you see during a high speed landing. Actually in this situation you want either fuel to be burning or not able to burn and nothing in between. It's highly likely that there were considerations around the risks of inflating the emergency slides into a potential ground pool fuel fire. I think that would be a much more dangerous situation. There is also the issue of radiant heat. I'd say that evacuees in this instance may have been at risk of burns from radiant heat.

When you are responding to a fire situation you are generally responding to a novel situation and you need to assess the situation and make the best choices you can. None of us here have all the information, are not in a position to decide on what the best decision would be, and most have no experience in fire fighting.

The end result of this is that no one was hurt and I think the fire was extinguished relatively quickly.
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