American Airlines Cargo Fire in Hong Kong Caught on Tape
A large fire broke out next to a Los Angeles (LAX)-bound American Airlines flight originating in Hong Kong (HKG) while cargo was being loaded on to the aircraft. The fire damaged the aircraft and resulted in the flight getting canceled and reportedly caused an injury to a worker escaping the fire.
The fire was caught on video by those in the terminal:
Twitter user JACDEC posted a compilation of photos from the incident:
Daniel Chan also caught stills of the fire and the firefighting response. Click the right arrow on the image to scroll through the photos:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaBfOWuhgVJ/
Firefighters rushed to the scene and were able to put out the fire promptly. Still, the aircraft was damaged, forcing the cancellation of flight #192 from HKG-LAX. The aircraft is a three year old Boeing 777-300ER with the registration N727AN.
The good news is that the origin of the fire wasn't from the cargo itself. Thus, the flight wasn't at risk if it took off with the cargo. An American Airlines spokesperson has provided The Points Guy with the following statement:
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. Boarding had not yet started when this occurred and no passengers or crew were injured. The operator of loading equipment is being looked after by medical professionals with non-life threatening injuries.
Shaquille Khan from AirlineGeeks reports that the aircraft is "out of service until at least tomorrow" due to the damage to the cargo door:
This article has been updated with the statement from American Airlines.
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