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.

Does look strange, to be exact.

Right engine and left wing on fire!? How can fire in an engine ignite the oposite wing or vice versa? UEF like the AA in LAX recently, with the engine desintegrating punctured the oposite wing tank and sliced the belly fairing? But an UEF at low power setting?

Good news is, all survived.

All reports I've seen say it was the left engine. This photo confirms it, I'd say.



http://www.asahi.com/photonews/image...0708200077.jpg

From http://www.asahi.com/national/update...708200017.html (Japanese only)

Looks like burning fuel spill from left wing fire spread under fuselage to right wing.

Looks like it was burning right through to the right-hand side by then. Should help the investigators though, this video. Video says all pax and crew got off OK but 2 went to hospital because they "felt unwell". A JAL maintenance staff member was slightly injured in the explosion as well.

Any 'photos showing any fire appliancies?

Video running on TV here in Norway show 3 huge fire engines in attendance , but after the aircraft broke it's back behind the wing.

Sad to see another 737NG go. But the timing of the last pax getting out of the rear service door and the explosion was incredible. Does anyone know if the crew survived?

Video
 

http://www.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/index.html
at the right hand sight a link to a video showing evacuation and explosion of nbr 2 engine

News report from Switzerland - perhaps somewhat more factual
 

Which roughly translated says:

8 Mins. after landing at Naha in the Okinawa Province of Japan at 10:35 local time, the fully booked China Airways B737-800 flight 120 from Taipeh from caught fire (165 people on board of which 157 were passengers(incl. 2 baby's)).

On reaching its parking position a ground technician noticed fuel leaking from the aircraft - all on board were immediately evacuated via the emergency slides. A few minutes thereafter the LEFT engine exploded and the 5 year old plane burnt out - the fire took an hour to extinguish.

A 7 year old girl and a 57 year old man who complained of feeling sick were take to hospital. Police reported that a crew member and a member of the ground staff were injured.

Hope that helps. For a change it seemed like a fairly good journo report....:ok:

That was close. Kudos to the cabin crew and flightdeck for getting everyone off (although a few of the scattering masses were still clutching their duty-free as they scampered away along the tarmac. I suppose there isn't much time to argue).
A report here says:
"The explosion was heard some 2 kilometers away by an employee at the Employment Activation Organization, a Naha-based foundation.
Airport runways were closed until 11 a.m., causing delays of outbound flights and forcing incoming aircraft to circle the airport until they were given clearance to land.
Airport traffic controllers did not receive any communication from the aircraft's two pilots about engine trouble or a request to make an emergency landing, ministry officials said.
The fire apparently broke out in the main engine after the plane had landed and stopped at its assigned No. 41 parking spot, said an official of Naha Airport Building, operator of the airport's terminal building.
Japan branch officials of China Airlines said a ground maintenance worker noticed fuel leaking from the back of the engine after the aircraft had landed. "
Wouldn't like to be the guy who last signed off that engine.

Aircraft Details

B737-800
S/N 30175
REG B-18616
BUILT 2002
VALUE USD 45M

Pilots look to be very lucky. After the initial fire the secondary explosion seems to set alight the cabin. As this erupts looks like the pilot and co-pilot jump out of the starboard cabin window.

Hope both are okay and no passengers were hurt.

Explosion
 

.

The explosion looked as if it was from under the belly and spreading out under the engine - center fuel tank leak? The explosion could be something in the wheel bay envigorating the existing fuel fire. Tyres, hydraulics? (Shouldn't really explode, I know.) Hot center tank, with a few dregs in it?

Fire engines only arrive when evacuation appears complete, so say after 3 or 4 minutes. A bit slow, I would say.

Looks like the doors were possibly still "armed". How long does it take if the doors have been "dis-armed" whilst approaching the gate (as it looks like this aircraft was), and then to get them back into an "armed" state if an immediate deployment of escape slides is needed? Also, if an instruction is not forthcoming from the cockpit - for whatever reason - and the doors are "dis-armed", then what is needed on the part of FA's (or possibly pax) to get the escape slides to operate? I'm ATC and frequent pax. Anyone care to comment?

KIWIBIRD - The fire services at HK airport (CLK) are required to be able to respond to any part of the aerodrome in 2 minutes. I don't know about NAHA. With all these things, confusion sometimes allows the time to fly by....lives also!

It was interesting to see, from one of the news videos, a JAL landing on during the incident. Would it be normal for operations to continue when the fire service are already engaged in a full-on emergency?

This is not meant as a criticism of the fire service at Okinawa as it may well be that they have a suitably large fleet of appliances to enable them to remain fully available, despite such an event as this.

slides
 

Different airlines have different procedures. Some only disarm when the engines are shut down and a command is given. More recent policy is to disarm when the SCCM thinks they approaching the stand, which I find not entirely satis.

Rearming is simple, a matter of 30 seconds grovelling on the floor - a particular failing of the Boeing, because if there is now a scrum of passengers behind you, you are not going to get back up to open the door.

The FAs are allowed to evacuate on initiative if the a/c is stationary and it is obvious that something catastrophic has happened.

Well done for the cabin crew!
 

Is only in these situations that passengers realise why the cabin crew are onboard.

Well done! It reminds me of the Air France in Toronto.

Procedures at CI is slides to remain armed until the engines are shut down and the seat sign is switched off.

Looks like the "secondard explosion" was a couple of the tyres letting go. Spectacular effect, imagine if they were filled with air.:eek: