A transatlantic passenger jet was forced to declare an emergency and divert to Shannon Airport yesterday (Monday) amid fears of a fire on board.
It’s now believed that heat from a consignment of fruit activated the jets on board fire alarm and extinguishers. There were three almost identical emergencies at Shannon last year.
Yesterday, Aeromexico flight AM-003 was travelling from Mexico City to Paris when the crew declared an emergency at around 2.20pm.
The Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner jet was about 500 kilometres south west of Shannon when an alarm in the cockpit indicated a possible “fire in the right aft cargo hold.”
The passenger flight is now known to have been carrying a large consignment of fruit and computer parts.
With the jet just 30 minutes from Shannon, the crew opted to divert and land there while emergency procedures were quickly implemented at the airport.
The emergency plan involved the airports own fire and service service along the local authority fire service, ambulance service and gardaÃ.
Units of the fire brigade Shannon along with ambulances from Limerick and Ennis assembled at the airport fire station while crash crews took up positions on taxiways off the main runway ahead of the jets arrival.
Additional units of the fire brigade from Ennis were mobilised to a designated holding point next to the M18 motorway at Dromoland in case they were required.
The jet landed safely at 2.50pm and quickly vacated the runway opting not to have the cargo hold opened and inspected while the passengers were still on board.
The pilot also asked controllers to advise fire crews not to approach the cargo hold until all the passengers had been deplaned.
Soon afterwards, the pilot requested that his plane be moved to a remote parking area before allowing fire crews open the cargo door to carry out an inspection.
Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus and heat detection equipment waited for over an hour before the pilot cleared fire crews to open the cargo hold and carry out an inspection.
According to sources, the pilot refused to allow fire crews open the hold until he had received clearance from the airlines operations centre.
It’s now believed that heat from two tonnes of mangos activated the jets sensitive fire detection system. It’s understood that flight was also carrying six tonnes of computer parts.
In 2014, there were three incidents where flights diverted to Shannon because fire scares on board.
In each case it was heat from organic materials in the cargo holds that activated onboard fire alarms while the aircraft involved in each case was a Boeing 747.
In an incident last December, the crew of an Air France Boeing 747 Jumbo issued a Mayday call after a consignment of vegetables activated the jets fire alarm and sprinkler systems.