American Airline plane catches fire on runway at Chek Lap Kok
 

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/images...tentPhoto1.jpg

An American Airline plane caught fire at Hong Kong International Airport today. One worker injured
Looking at this photo it appears the pallet caught fire not the airplane as the newspapers headline claim.

The aircraft or its' cargo? From the photo it looks like the latter or am I missing something?

Yes you are right. Headlines made it sound like the plane caught fire. Glad this did not happen at 40,000 feet.

Extensive photos and videos here (in Chinese)

Unclear if it started in the loading machine or the cargo, either way round the aircraft is u/s for a while.

Indeed pretty scary.

Suprised that the fire could develop to that extent without being attended by fire services. But I admittedly don't know all the specifics.

be interesting to know what was in that pallet!

Lithium-ion batteries?

Again?

"On the runway"?

Looks more like the ramp/apron to me!

Yes. Again shows you how journalists write nowadays...:rolleyes:

From the Daily Star (can't post full URL)
/news/world-news/650933/Hong-Kong-airport-fire-American-Airlines-plane-cargo

The spokesman said: "An external piece of loading equipment had a mechanical issue and caught fire while preparing to put cargo in the hold of American Airlines flight 192 from Hong Kong (HKG) to Los Angeles (LAX).

"As a result, a pallet on the loading equipment containing non-hazardous goods also caught fire."


Perhaps not Li-ion batteries after all.

What was the response time for the equipment to arrive?

Well if this was indeed induced by a failure of the loading gear the firefighting response time seems very questionable.

I can imagine a fire breaking out inside the pallet and not being detected until it growths into a serious hazard. But this doesn't look good...

must have gone up fast - the loading guys are still standing/sitting right next to it.............

Loader and other GSE does occasionally malfunction/leak and catch fire. Appears the pallet was stacked boxes of dry goods that world burn quickly once set a fire.

Defiteley looks like it started underneath the pallet.Never seen that before. Always thought the netting was fire-proof.

Lucky (?) escape for one cargo handler

Could have been a rapid ox fire like a battery at the front bottom corner inside the pallet. Check for high intensity burning particles falling to the ground.

Lucky it happened on the ground...

Cargo nets are not fire proof.

Flames may have begun below the pallet as suggested then likely snaked their way to and over the edge of pallet catching the plastic wrap and cardboard boxes on fire. There's a good photo towards the bottom in the earlier link that may help your understanding of how cargo is palletized.

I bet that set the cargo hold smoke detectors off. A lot of pilots assume a warning during loading is the result of spraying the hold or exhaust times from the equipment.