Friday, July 12, 2013

Ethiopian Airlines B787 ‘Queen of Sheba’ suffers fire damage while parked at Heathrow

(July 13, 2013, (BBC))--Flights have resumed at London's Heathrow Airport after a fire on a parked Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet. All runways were closed for nearly 90 minutes after the fire at 16:30 BST. No passengers were aboard the plane at the time, a Heathrow spokesman said.



Fifty Dreamliners worldwide were grounded in January after malfunctions with the plane's lithium-ion batteries. Boeing modified the jets with new batteries and flights resumed in April. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch of the Department for Transport has despatched a team to the scene.

The Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliner in the Heathrow incident - named the Queen of Sheba - flew from Addis Ababa to Nairobi on the first commercial flight since the grounding. Pictures of the Heathrow fire showed the Queen of Sheba close to a building and surrounded by fire vehicles. London Fire Brigade said its crews assisted Heathrow staff.

Fire-retardant foam was sprayed at the airliner, and an area on top of the fuselage in front of the tail appeared to be scorched. Ethiopian Airlines said smoke was detected from the aircraft after it had been parked at Heathrow for more than eight hours. Read more from BBC »
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