http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23294760
Runways at London's Heathrow airport have closed after a fire on a parked
Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet.
Arrivals and departures were suspended after the incident at 16:30 BST, a
spokesman for the airport said. No passengers were aboard at the time.
Fifty Dreamliners worldwide were grounded in January because of battery
malfunctions.
Boeing later modified the jets with new batteries and flight resumed in
April.
An Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliner named the Queen of Sheba - the same plane
involved in the Heathrow incident - flew from Addis Ababa to Nairobi on the
first commercial flight since the grounding.
Pictures of the Heathrow fire on Twitter show an aircraft close to a
building and surrounded by fire vehicles. London Fire Brigade said its
crews were standing by to assist Heathrow staff.
Fire-retardant foam appeared to have been sprayed at the airliner, but no
damage to the aircraft was immediately apparent.
A Heathrow spokesman said: "We can confirm there has been an on-board
internal fire involving an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft and the airport's
emergency services are in attendance.
"The aircraft was parked on a remote parking stand. There were no
passengers on board and there are no reported injuries at this time.
"Arrivals and departures are temporarily suspended while airport fire crews
attend to this incident. This is a standard procedure if fire crews are
occupied with an incident."
The airport is advising passengers to check the status of their flights
with the airlines.
The Metropolitan Police said: "Police at Heathrow were alerted to a fire on
a plane. Emergency services are in attendance.
"At this time it is believed no one was on board and there are no reports
of any injuries. The fire is being treated as unexplained."
Received on Sat Jul 13 2013 - 20:47:11 EDT