British Airways Boeing 747 caught fire at Castellon Airport, Spain

[ILS27LEFT]

BREAKING A British Airways Boeing 747 caught fire at Castellon Airport, Spain

Somebody forgot a mobile on charge?

[lomapaseo]

Do they fly the route with a B747 or is it a diversion?

[dns]

Being stored, all the BA jumbos have been retired

[BRISTOLRE]

Its CIVD
looks like a fire in cockpit roof above cockpit windows
these two havent been broken yet, engines still on them
videos and clips are around on the net

[gas path]

Allegedly someone hacked into an oxygen pipe!

[Nil by mouth]

Here's a video link

https://twitter.com/i/status/1330881634355310601

[TURIN]

I wonder what was the source of ignition. Someone having a crafty fag while they work or was there any grease around?

Sad sight though. An iconic image for 2020.

[ATC Watcher]

Reminds me of a similar incident on a brand new A340 in Paris during maintenance in the early 1990's . Someone pulled out some boxes caused an electrical short circuit, resulting in a fire, the guy was alone , by the time time he ran out to get help and a fire extinguisher, the fire was too large to be put out. the aircraft was completely destroyed in the end if I remember. **** happens .
On another matter , the dense back smoke and the duration of the fire show how retardant the materials around the cockpit are in reality :rolleyes:

[LessThanSte]

On another matter , the dense back smoke and the duration of the fire show how retardant the materials around the cockpit are in reality :rolleyes:
I thought so too - are they really that flammable? That looks like a fairly intense fire (or smoky, anyway!), and something that would cause absolute havoc in the air. Or would an onboard fire extinguisher put that out in no time in flight?

[Hueymeister]

Apparently the reg is G-CVID....sounds too good to be true....!

[dns]

The BCF extinguishers onboard are VERY effective, using more than one on any onboard fire is very rare.

In a flight situation I doubt this sort of thing would have got beyond the smell of burning and a bit of smoke. The pilots would have got straight on to the oxygen masks and PA'd the cabin crew to get in their immediately to run through their drills.

[tdracer]

On another matter , the dense back smoke and the duration of the fire show how retardant the materials around the cockpit are in reality :rolleyes:

If - as gas path posted - it's being fed by an O2 pipe, just about anything will burn...

[dns]

Interesting... I'd have thought it would have made sense to drain the oxygen systems for storage, but maybe there's a reason not to

​​​​​

[wub]

Apparently the reg is G-CVID....sounds too good to be true....!
The reg is G-CIVD

[atakacs]

Are those in storage or being dismantled?

[Nil by mouth]

Quoting from the same source of that video I posted:-

An unused two-story, fifteen-metre-high Boeing 747 aircraft had been parked at the airport on the Mediterranean coast of Spain waiting to be scrapped when the fire broke out.

[dns]

It's being scrapped, apparently the process hasn't started yet

[TitanCadetScheme]

It has now.

[DuncanDoenitz]

https://www.pprune.org/spectators-balcony-spotters-corner/636988-bid-bit-ba-surplus-stock.html

I think we can scratch Lot 169.

[TURIN]

Makes You wonder who is doing the dismantling and for how much.

[ivor toolbox]

TURIN

E Cube has been mentioned elsewhere.

[OvertHawk]

However.

in hindsight i admit that referring to something which people have cared for for a long time as "some hulk" was insensitive. for that I apologise. I myself have seen airframes that i've flown and cared for end up in similar circumstances and it is not easy.

But my point remains the same - I don't want people putting themselves in harms way to protect something that is going to be turned into scrap anyway.

[DaveReidUK]

Having watched, along with my colleagues, aircraft which one has worked on, or flown, only a few weeks/months/years previously now being torn apart with the help of a JCB, I can vouch for the fact that it's a valuable lesson in Airline Economics 101. :O

[old,not bold]

It's quite reminiscent of the DHL fire at San Francisco in 2008. (https://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/B762,_San_Francisco_CA_USA,_2008)

Here's an extract;

"the initiation of the fire could be traced to internal ignition of a pvc oxygen supply hose in the crew compartment."

[SID PLATE]

I wonder what was the source of ignition. Someone having a crafty fag while they work or was there any grease around?

Sad sight though. An iconic image for 2020.

Crafty fag ?
There's a smoke removal vent on the top of the forward fuselage, operated by a T handle on the overhead panel. When BA got round to banning smoking on the flight deck, transgressions were occasionally reported to management by the cabin crew, which could result in a formal carpeting and a loss of seniority for the transgressor. Die hard tab hounds used to crack the smoke vent in flight, and wedge the T handle with a ten pence piece, so that any cigarette smoke on the flight deck went out of the vent, and didn't filter back to the forward galley.
In the olden days, a few Flight Engineers smoked pipes or cigars on the 747 100's and 200's. If you turned round in your seat to speak to them, you couldn't see them, but you knew they were there.

[dns]

Did the -400 have that vent? I thought it was just the classics...

Heard a great story once about a flight engineer who got fed up with the dust and crumbs being left on the consoles. He bought a length of plastic tube and would attach it to the smoke vent so he could use it as a hoover!

[eckhard]

Did the -400 have that vent? I thought it was just the classics...

My understanding is that it was originally the tube for mounting the sextant on the early models and it was “repurposed” as a smoke vent.

Die hard tab hounds used to crack the smoke vent in flight, and wedge the T handle with a ten pence piece, so that any cigarette smoke on the flight deck went out of the vent, and didn't filter back to the forward galley.

I remember a particular Captain on a Gatwick-Houston trip in 1998 doing almost exactly that! The only difference was that he used a £1 coin. Typical BA Captain; I’m surprised he didn’t use a £50 note to light up........

[Shackman]

Heard a great story once about a flight engineer who got fed up with the dust and crumbs being left on the consoles. He bought a length of plastic tube and would attach it to the smoke vent so he could use it as a hoover!
That's so old - we used all sorts of holes in the (unpressurised) Shack to hoover up rubbish, as taught to FE's and others from their predecessors on aircraft going back to before WWII.

[TheWestCoast]

Isn't the practice of painting over airline livery on retired planes done to prevent this kind of negative imagery getting into the public domain - in this case, smoke belching from a cockpit next to BA logos?

[DaveReidUK]

Isn't the practice of painting over airline livery on retired planes done to prevent this kind of negative imagery getting into the public domain - in this case, smoke belching from a cockpit next to BA logos?

It's a long time since BA worried about such niceties.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1600x1078/british_airways_boeing_737_derelict_at_addis_ababa_29b554a48 f6ba5f0800e435df2075dd639f5d61d.jpg

[dixi188]

Mid '70s a BA One-Eleven landed at Hurn without the nose gear extended. Soon after everyone was off a BA van appeared and a man painted out the name, filmed by local TV crew. Then a crane came along to lift the nose and remove the aircraft from the runway.

[MAC 40612]

Castellon as a location is relatively new to the aircraft scrapping business, one of a number of newer locations that have appeared in recent times to deal with the upsurge of withdrawn airliners. BA had only just started using that location, with in the past BA using Victorville [USA] Kemble and Newquay [England] St Athan [Wales] and Teruel [Spain]

The oxygen system should [hopefully] have been turned off at the bottles but maybe someone missed the two crew bottles that are in a different location to all the passenger bottles or forgot to depressurise the crew system?

[Pilot DAR]

A bit of thread drift, but should I ask why a British Airways 737 has a "5Y" registration?

[TWT]

BA franchise in Kenya with Regional Air

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Air_(Kenya)

Similar deal in South Africa (Comair)

[student88]

TheWestCoast

Until recently, eCube at St Athan were painting out the BA livery on the 747s. The same company are also doing the dismantling at this location in Spain and were harvesting G-CIVD at the time of the incident.

[Lew747]

More footage including the interior...
https://youtu.be/EFjRSpPo90I

[procede]

I'm surprised the engines are still under the wing.

[MAC 40612]

Why are you surprised about the engines? All the BA 747s had quite high hours engines and there isn't a massive market for RB211s, in fact most of the BA RB211s being sold are not even going to the aviation industry.

[procede]

I would think there are still quite a few spare parts and valuable materials for recycling in them and they are fairly easy to take apart.

[Check Airman]

MAC 40612

Where are they going?

[MAC 40612]

Oil/Gas industry, they strip the engines down to the core and are used as pumps/compressors run for a couple of years and then disposed of. Allegedly, the cost of buying up one of these is cheaper than having their existing units serviced

[Check Airman]

Wow. I had no idea. Thanks.

[India Four Two]

Gas turbines have been used in compressor stations for many years.

Avons replaced by RB211s:
https://www.rolls-royce.com/media/press-releases-archive/yr-2007/rr-rb211-gas.aspx


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/455x487/screen_shot_2020_11_26_at_23_45_29_62654dc9e117bfde19dc53776 6cdfbf2608a39e5.png