A jet that sparked a major emergency at Shannon Airport on Friday had just been taken out of retirement from an Arizona desert.
The 16-year-old Boeing 747-400 was one of three Jumbo Jet’s that were retired by Delta (Airlines) last September to an aircraft ‘boneyard’ in Arizona.
The plane was ‘unretired’ and flown from Pinal Airport, Arizona to Minneapolis last week where it underwent maintenance before returning to service.
Its understood the mothballed jet was recommissioned after another of the airlines Jumbos was damaged in a hail storm over China on June 17th last.
On Friday however, the jet was forced to dump thousands of litres of aviation fuel before making an emergency landing at Shannon amid fears of a fire in a rear cargo hold.
There were almost 400 passengers and crew on board Delta flight DL-73 when the crew declared a Mayday over Ireland reporting a cargo hold fire indication in the cockpit.
While the crew prepared for their emergency landing, a multi-agency operation was being put in place on the ground.
Airport crash crews were alerted while units of the fire brigade from both Shannon Town and Ennis were mobilised along with a fleet of ambulances from Ennis and Limerick City.
The RNLI lifeboat station at Kilrush Co Clare and the Killaloe unit of the Irish Coast Guard were also requested to remain on standby in their areas until the flight had landed safely.
The flight was cleared to descend and dump thousands of litres of aviation fuel before commencing its priority emergency approach to Shannon.
The crew also confirmed they has activated the holds fire suppression system as a precaution. The flight landed safely at 2.48pm and came to a stop on the runway.
Fire crews quickly surrounded the plane and once the aircraft’s four engines had been shut down and used thermal imaging cameras to check for hotspots on the aircraft’s fuselage and undercarriage.
After blocking Shannon’s only runway for almost 30 minutes, the plane was towed to the terminal building where fire crews breathing apparatus were able to board the jet and undertake a closer inspection.
Shortly before 4.00pm, it was confirmed there was no evidence of a fire on board and emergency services were stood down.
Its understood that there were several dogs belonging to passengers in the cargo hold at the time however their fate was not known.
The passengers were later taken to hotels in Shannon, Limerick and Ennis where rooms were said to be scarce.
The jet continued its journey at 6.00pm on Saturday as flight 9856.