DEVELOPING: Ethiopian Boeing 787 Involved In Incident at London Heathrow

News broke on Friday afternoon that an Ethiopian Boeing 787, registration ET-AOP, “caught fire” according to several reports. The aircraft, which was at a gate after arriving 8 hours earlier and unoccupied at the time, was seen with a small amount of smoke. The aircraft was doused by fire retardant foam by at least three emergency vehicles. At this time, there is no information as to the cause of the fire, or the extent of the damage.

Images appear to show fire damage to the top of the fuselage near the tail section of the 787. Such damage is inconsistent with the fire damage caused by the malfunctioning battery system that caused the 787 grounding. The composite skin of the 787 melts at a minimum temperature of 649 degrees F, according to various reports after the initial battery fire. It is possible that this fire may have been caused by a fire in the rear galley or crew rest, though nothing is confirmed at this point. Airport operations have now resumed.

Ethiopian Airlines has released a statement, the text of which is contained below.

Today on Friday, 12 July 2013, smoke was detected from Ethiopian Airlines B787 aircraft with registration number ET-AOP, which was parked at London Heathrow airport for more than eight hours. The aircraft was empty when the incident was observed. The cause of the incident is under investigation by all concerned. Ethiopian is a multi-award winning airline and a member of Star Alliance since 2011 registering an average growth of 25% in the past seven years.

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