A Delhi to San Francisco flight of Air India caught fire during repair work while on the tarmac of Delhi’s IGI airport. The Boeing 777-200LR (VT-ALF) aircraft was undergoing a schedule pre-flight maintenance.
The incident occurred on Wednesday night and was due to a fire on the auxiliary power unit (APU), which provides electricity to power aircraft when on the ground, at the rear of the aircraft.
In a statement to Indian Today, Air India said: “Yesterday night (24th of April) at Delhi when an engineer was doing a routine technical examination of an empty aircraft (777), APU auto shut down took place. “
“Airport fire personnel observed black fumes from the APU exhaust and believing it to be a fire hazard sprayed APU and part of the fuselage with foam spray.”
“After this event, APU was examined by opening its cowlings and there was no trace of any burn or external damage noticed except for the minor oil leaks traces, which was normal. A detailed inspection is going.”
Air India termed it as a minor incident, and the fire was doused immediately.
All Images by: Tarun Shukla
Due poor aircraft maintenance
This particular 777 – 200 LR is a workhorse, infact one of the very first 777’s to be inducted into the AI fleet back in 2008-9.
I remember AI had to ground these 200 LR’s temporarily and put them on Sale owing to lack of funds back in 2015.
But now they are the backbone of AI’s profitable Delhi – SFO Route. I hope they get this one back in the air soon