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Last evening, at London Heathrow airport, a high-lifter service truck belonging to ASIG (airport service international group) caught fire just below Jet Airways’ Boeing 777-300ER VT-JEQ as it was preparing to depart to New Delhi as flight 9W 121.
Below are rather dramatic pictures of the ASIG truck on fire.
We emphasize there was no fire on the aircraft itself, but the truck was right below the aircraft and it is lucky the the fire did not enter the airplane’s outflow valve just above the fire.
After the fire was extinguished, the aircraft was inspected, as per safety procedure, and the flight departed with a delay of about one hour and 15 minutes. On our enquiry with the airline, a spokesperson for the airline said
As per procedure, all pre flight activities were temporarily aborted and the fire was promptly extinguished by the authorities. Since the truck was in close proximity to our aircraft, on completion of formalities, the aircraft was inspected and released for departure. There were 155 guests and crew on board the flight.
It is interesting to note that only about 142 passengers (assuming 13 crew) on a 346 seat aircraft. Meaning a rather meagre 41% passenger load factor. However, it was also a Tuesday, typically the lowest travel day of the week.
Clarification on no photo credit
A well wisher enquired with us as to why no photo credit was given. For the information of our readers, we obtained a link to these pictures from an anonymous source around 12:30 IST. Despite our attempts, we were unable to determine the person who took these pictures. We have therefore provided a direct link to the pictures hosted on the internet. If you follow the link, will observe there is no name on those pictures.
– Editor
