Chinese airport firefighters extinguish wrong plane

A plane was delayed for 10 hours after fire crews attempting to extinguish sparks from an engine covered the wrong aircraft in foam. Firefighters were called to the scene at Fuzhou City Airport in southern China Friday following reports of a possible fire discovered on an Air China flight taxiing for take-off. Eight fire trucks […]

A plane was delayed for 10 hours after fire crews attempting to extinguish sparks from an engine covered the wrong aircraft in foam.
Firefighters were called to the scene at Fuzhou City Airport in southern China Friday following reports of a possible fire discovered on an Air China flight taxiing for take-off.
Eight fire trucks arrived on the runway within minutes and began spraying the aircraft with foam – only to be alerted by the control centre that they were focusing on the wrong plane.
Crews soon turned their attention to the correct flight, but the other – a Fuzhou Airlines plane with passengers on-board – was delayed for several hours.
The Air China flight had reported smoke and fire in a right-side engine of a Boeing 737-800 for a flight headed to Beijing. By the time firefighters arrived four minutes later, engines were switched off.
However, the Fuzhou Airlines plane of the same make had exhaust fumes coming from its tail, the airport explained in a statement.
They said: ‘The firefighters sprayed the Fuzhou Airlines plane with foam until the airport’s control center alerted them to the mistake, and then they sprayed the right plane.’
The incident saw a delay of 30 flights and the airport was shut for 90 minutes.
Fuzhou’s sprayed aircraft had to be evacuated and towed away to check its engines. It took off about 10 hours later.
The airport apologised for the inconvenience.

Culled from dailymail.co.uk