Aeromexico 787 diverts to Shannon with hold-fire alarm
 

Surprised nobody's posted this yet:

http://rt.com/news/270442-aeromexico-am3-fire-cargo/

(Sorry if someone has and I missed it!)

Cheers,
Howard

From the lack of excitement around the aircraft after landing it appears that it was another false smoke alarm rather than an actual fire as the headlines splashed it over the world.

^^ seems quite likely as a) the aircraft proceeded to a gate, instead of letting firefighters exinguish a fire immediately after coming to a stop on the runway b) media went silent hours ago

The last thing you want the fire services to do while the passengers are still on board is to open the aircraft hold as soon as you land.

What you would prefer to happen is for the fire services to assess the temperature of the hold by scanners.

If the hold temp indicates a fire then you may choose to evacuate the passengers first, before the hold is opened for firefighting (don't want to add oxygen to the hold with pax still on board).

If the hold temp suggests no fire, then proceding to the gate for normal disembarkation if prob a good call to avoid unnecessary injuries. Then after disembarkation you can open the hold and investigate further.

This may be the case here with the well-trained Irish firefighters.

Airport firefighters have some things in common with pilots...they get to train a few simulated emergencies, they drive heavy equipment with powerful engines, there's worries about potential loss of life, and there's a lot of SOP drills, routine, and boredom. Luckily most don't need to show off the skills they spend a lifetime training for, but they are indeed well trained professionals.

From the Irish Examiner:

"Shannon Airport said fire crews and ambulances were on the runway as the plane touched down but checks in the cargo hold found no trace of smoke or fire.

“Shannon Airport can confirm that the emergency response that was activated for the arrival of a diverted Aeromexico flight this afternoon has now been stood down,” a spokesman for the airport said.

“All 193 passengers and crew were disembarked and the aircraft subsequently assessed at a remote location.”

The flight was flying from Mexico City to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris when the crew requested to land in the Co Clare airport at about 2.30pm local time.

Aviation sources suggested the alarm might be explained by the large cargo of fruit on board or preservatives used on the mangoes to keep them fresh during transport."

Mangoes may have sparked in-flight alarm and divert to Shannon | Irish Examiner

The warning, in bold, directly under the Cargo Smoke title in my QRH:

From my experience with EMI testing of fire detectors my first suspect would be a cellphone, not a fruit... But that opinion is no longer popular since phone service on airplanes has become a major business.

Many moons ago I went tech in Cairo with a DC8 loaded with 46 tonnes of pineapples. About six hours after landing the Flight Engineer went out to the airport to remove a faulty part to save time. When the F/E entered the aircraft he saw smoke coming from two pallets of pineapples. All the doors were opened and the smoke stopped. Everything you touched in that DC8 felt sticky for months!

LOL, mangoes?

Wasn't there something about mangoes on the MH370 also? I vaguely recall some heated debate about rotten fruit... very amusing... :-)