Aircraft Fire - Alice Springs

[Capt Claret]

Mrs C mentioned this to me tonight. A search on the ABC web site revealed;

NT pilot escapes fire unharmed

A pilot has managed to safely land a plane at Alice Springs Airport despite it being on fire at the time.

Territory police say the twin-engine cargo plane is extensively damaged after the blaze, which happened just before 12.30am ACST.

The 28-year-old pilot has not been injured.

Territory and airport fire crews put out the blaze.

The Air Transport Safety Bureau is expected to investigate the cause of the fire.

[yowie]

AC50,still amazed at the lack of fire response considering the amount of time these guys spend on the radio making sure it works!:rolleyes:How many tankers do they have there anyway, last count I heard was 94:}

[Chadzat]

Love the crap journalism. :ugh:

A/C only caught on fire after vacating the runway- hardly "A pilot has managed to safely land a plane at Alice Springs Airport despite it being on fire at the time."

yowie- all 94 would have been in bed at the time!! ;)

[av8trflying]

Why so amazed at how long fire service took to get there? It is not staffed at night so crews would have had to come from home to try and 'help' another aviation worker.

You can thank affordable safety for that one.

As usual comments without the facts.

[novicef]

Was talking to a friend in SYD. He reckons it was an aircraft belonging to GAM. They must have a dispensation because he reckons the block time is over 8 hours is this correct as it is regularly scheduled?

[ALLICEDUP]

It was a GAM aircraft, they operate under a Fatigue Management System, not under CAO 48 limitations, they usually log between 8.5 to 9 hours on the Alice return I think.

[Belgique]

A fiery landing at Alice Springs Airport
Last Update: Thursday, October 18, 2007. 4:48pm ACST
By Nicole Lee
It was a firey landing for a pilot when the right engine of his Shrike Commander caught on fire while landing at Alice Springs Airport last night.
The twin engine plane, which was carrying cargo destined for a local bank caught on fire while the pilot was taxiing to land. It is believed the engine stalled while landing, and caught on fire when the pilot re-started the plane.
The Alice Springs fire brigade was called to the fire at around 12.30am last night and were faced with some difficulty keeping the fire contained.
"There were some difficulties initially because we only carry a certain amount of dry powder...The motor itself actually dropped out onto the tarmac and the fire did impinge onto the fuselage a little bit. Then the airport firies turned up to put out the fire with their foam canons," said John Kleeman, Station Commander at the Alice Springs Fire Station.
John Kleeman who arrived on the scene shortly after the plane had landed, said the pilot was safe but a little shaken.
"I spoke to the pilot when I arrived and after he had vacated...I'd say he was a little bit shook up."
"The fire was slow to start with, it was contained mainly within the motor obviously you have got some concern with fuel loads and also the magnesium which you can't readily put water on."
The Alice Springs Fire Brigade was the first on the scene with the airport fire services arriving shortly afterwards. Simon Hatfield, Operations Manager at the Alice Springs Airport says the amount of overnight traffic coming through the airport isn't enough to warrant an overnight emergency fire service being permanently stationed at the airport.
"I think under the circumstances, it was quite a small event in the scale of things. We don't have that many movements over night, just the odd freight coming in every three to four hours so I think under the arrangements that we have right now they tend to work quite well."
The clean up continues today, with Paul Totani the Chief Engineer at Chart-Air making sure the plane is safe by de-fuelling.
"Basically, the first thing we had to do was just get a wheel to fit it so we could move it off the tarmac and remove the engine which was three quarters of the way out by itself. We had to make the plane safe by removing all the fuel from it, I think it had about 200 litres on board," said Paul.
The incident comes just a week before the airport is due to hold a mock emergency scenario to test response times of local emergency services.

[Peter Fanelli]

The motor itself actually dropped out onto the tarmac and the fire did impinge onto the fuselage a little bit.


So can we assume the plane will not be available for the run next week? :}

[OpsNormal]

Hmmmmm, green fuel for the green ute..... he'll be happy!:}:}

[Desert Flower]

The twin engine plane, which was carrying cargo destined for a local bank caught on fire while the pilot was taxiing to land.
Taxiing to land? That's different!;)
Then the airport firies turned up to put out the fire with their foam canons,"
One would hope they meant to say cannons here & not canons!

"I spoke to the pilot when I arrived and after he had vacated...
Think he might have evacuated too! ;)
and remove the engine which was three quarters of the way out by itself.
Ah, so it hadn't dropped out onto the tarmac after all?
The incident comes just a week before the airport is due to hold a mock emergency scenario to test response times of local emergency services.
God I hate it when that happens! :{
DF.

[OpsNormal]

If the Alice Airport really want to test their response times they wouldn't give them a heads-up that they were going to spring a test of the ERP on them, however I do understand the need to keep it simple and not have an over-reaction spill out into the press.

[OpsNormal]

One would hope they meant to say cannons here & not canons!

Bless you DF.... :E:ok:

[Desert Flower]

Bless you DF....


And three Hail Marys for you, my son! ;)

DF.

[bush mechanics]

Hey Ops,Thats Blue Ute!!!PM me and I have some pics for ya

[bush mechanics]

actually boys,At 730am the a.c was sitting on its arse,rh engine was hanging down with two prop blades touching the tarmac.the top halfs on the engine mounts had seperated and the lower halfs were bent down like a banana.