Description

On 20 August 2007, as a Boeing 737-800 being operated by China Airlines on a scheduled passenger flight arrived on the designated nose-in parking stand at destination Naha, Japan in daylight and normal visibility, fuel began to leak from the right wing near to the engine pod and ignited. An evacuation was quickly initiated and all 165 occupants including 8 crew members were able to leave the aircraft before it was engulfed by the fire, which spread rapidly and led to the destruction of the aircraft and major damage to the apron surface. As the stand was not adjacent to the terminal and not served by an air bridge, there was no damage to structures. All occupants had left the aircraft before the Airport RFFS arrived at the scene.

The Investigation

An Investigation into the Accident was carried out by the Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB). This established that the fuel leak had occurred from the right hand wing fuel tank after a hole had been punctured in the wing track can that housed the inboard main track of the No. 5 slat when the flaps and slats were retracted during the taxi in at Naha.

Ignition of the fuel was considered to have been the result of some of it coming into contact with the hot engine exhaust close by and the fire was then fed by fuel pooling on the apron below the leak source.

Flight crew awareness of a fire was first achieved by a ground crew communication which described only an ‘engine fire’ as the engines were being shut down on the gate for which there were no corresponding flight deck indications.

The JTSB published their Final Report on 28 August 2009 which states under ‘Probable Cause’ that: