China Airlines B737 Fire at Okinawa
 

CNN has a crawler reporting a China Airlines plane on fire at Okinawa...

Pictures look like a burned out 737 at the airport in Naha, reportedly after landing, no casualties on the first report...

CNN now has dramatic video of large flames and heavy smoke. Reports that all 155 (pax and/or pax and crew) off safely.

It's a 737 600 with the letter/number B18616 painted in various locations.

CAL has 737-800 - not 600

The CNN video, from Japanese sources, seems to show the flames coming from the rear to the mid-section and not forward of that.

CNN report at 0228z: Engine blew after landing; perhaps four people injured and the reporter says there are coflicting reports, but one they are hearing is that these people may still be on the plane.

I stand corrected, It's an 800 not a 600.

Why close to the ramp?
 

Whatever it was, must have developed late, why would you park it close to the ramp? Looks like fire spread through the airconditioning ducts.

can you say: how much fuel was in the center tank? ;-)

Usually none

Taiwanese jet catches fire at Okinawa airport
 

Taiwanese jet catches fire at Okinawa airport


Monday, August 20, 2007 - TOKYO (AP)


A China Airlines jet caught fire on the tarmac at an airport in Okinawa after arriving on a flight from Taipei, on Monday, but there were no passengers injured, officials said.

All 155 passengers had disembarked from the Boeing 737 before the fire, Kyodo News reported. National broadcaster NHK said the pilot was also believed to have escaped the plane.


A transport ministry official could not confirm the number of passengers, but said all had left before the fire broke out. He said, however, that the safety of the crew was not immediately known.


NHK showed flames and black smoke billowing from the plane as fire fighters doused the wrecked fuselage with extinguishers.


Flight CI120 left Taipei at 8:15 a.m. and had been scheduled to arrive at Naha, on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, at 10:45 a.m., NHK reported.

Another take on China Airlines CI120
 

TOKYO: A China Airlines jet caught fire on the tarmac at an airport in Okinawa after arriving on a flight from Taipei, on Monday, but there were no passengers injured, officials said.

Giant flames and plumes of black smoke erupted from the Boeing 737 after it landed from Taipei at Naha airport on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.

"I saw passengers getting out of the airplane. And then there were four explosions," a witness was quoted as saying.

All 155 passengers had disembarked from the Boeing 737 before the fire, a local news agency reported. National broadcaster said the pilot was also believed to have escaped the plane.

A transport ministry official could not confirm the number of passengers, but said all had left before the fire broke out. He said, however, that the safety of the crew was not immediately known.

The local media showed flames and black smoke billowing from the plane as fire fighters doused the wrecked fuselage with extinguishers.

Flight CI120 left Taipei at 8:15 a.m. and had been scheduled to arrive at Naha, on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, at 10:45a.m., the media reported.

In Taiwan, officials from China Airlines were not immediately available for comment.

NHK is reporting now that the right engine 'caught fire' and that all passengers are thought to be out. They also reported that one FA went back on the plane to ensure all the passengers were out.

Wing or Cabin fire?
 

If it was a right engine fire, why did the cabin look more burnt out than the wing?

Remember the BA 737-200 at Manchester, Left engine exploded, ruptured the fuel tank. The cabin was similarly burnt and destroyed. (Flames blown by crosswinds I believe)

NHK is now reporting (12:40JST) that all passsengers are out and all crew are safe but one of the crew members was slighly injured. They noted that the plane landed, and was approaching (or was at--this was not clear) the gate when four loud thumps were heard, followed heavy smoke, then fire. The fire reached all the way to the top of the vertical stabilizer.

Left side is where the problem appeared to be, at least initially:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=287706


Graphic video of the fire:

http://ninemsn.video.msn.com/v/en-au...mediaid=107237

And another
 

A China Airlines jet exploded into flames at an airport in Okinawa after arriving on a flight from Taiwan Monday, but all 165 people aboard escaped alive, officials said.
The 157 passengers _ including two small children _ fled the Boeing 737 unhurt on inflated emergency slides just minutes before the plane burst into a fireball, Transport Ministry official Akihiko Tamura told reporters.
China Airlines spokesman Sun Hung-wen told reporters in Taipei the aircraft skidded on the tarmac on its way from the runway to the gate after landing, starting a fire that prompted the emergency exit. The eight-member crew also safely left the plane, Sun said.
"The fire started when the first engine below the main left wing exploded, a minute after the aircraft entered the parking spot," Tamura said.
Accounts of injuries were unclear. Tamura said one crew member had been hurt, but local fire official Hiroki Shimabukuro said two passengers _ a 7-year-old girl and a man in his 50s _ had been hospitalized because they didn't feel well, not because of specific injuries.
National broadcaster NHK showed footage of a squad of firefighters dousing the empty plane with extinguishers as flames and clouds of black smoke billowed from the fuselage.
"After the plane landed, there were flames, and I heard explosions a few times then saw black smoke," airport worker Hideaki Oyadomari told national broadcaster NHK. "We felt the hot air coming our way."
The cause of the fire was unknown. Japan's National Police Agency said terrorism was not suspected.
"The plane landed safely so we are still checking why there was a fire," said Sun.
Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration head Chang Kuo-cheng said authorities have ordered China Airlines and its subsidiary Mandarin Airlines to ground their 13 other Boeing 737-800s pending thorough inspection.
The Okinawa fire is a setback to China Airlines, which in recent years appeared to have improved on a troubled safety record among international carriers.
A China Airlines 747 crashed in 2002 as it flew from Taipei to Hong Kong, leading to 225 deaths, and some 450 people died in China Airlines accidents during the 1990s.

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,946092,00.jpg

Doesn't look too good.

An update from CNN
 

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- A Taiwanese jetliner burst into flames Monday morning shortly after landing at the Naha airport on the Japanese island of Okinawa, but 165 passengers and crew got off the plane safely, authorities said.


The China Airlines jetliner caught fire at Naha airport on Monday.

The Japanese Transport Ministry and the Naha Fire Department said the passengers included 155 adults and two toddlers. The crew was made up of 2 pilots and six flight attendants.

According to the ministry, there was "some sort of explosion" on board the China Airlines Boeing 737, but no other details were immediate available. Japanese media reported that a passenger saw a fire in one of the engines before the blast.

The Transport Ministry said the plane arrived in Okinawa from Taipei at 10:31 a.m. local time and stopped on the tarmac three minutes later to evacuate passengers. At 10:35 a.m., the fire department was called to the scene.