PHOTO: that huge "post-cockpit-fire" hole in an Egyptair 777

[Stratofreighter]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYV_K7FAI5g[/youtube]

http://avherald.com/h?article=44078aa7&opt=0

Accident: Egyptair B772 at Cairo on Jul 29th 2011, cockpit fire

By Simon Hradecky, created Friday, Jul 29th 2011 21:17Z, last updated Saturday, Jul 30th 2011 20:46Z

An Egyptair Boeing 777-200, registration SU-GBP performing flight MS-667 from Cairo (Egypt) to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) with 291 passengers,
was preparing for departure at gate F7 with the passengers already boarded when a fire erupted in the cockpit causing smoke to also enter the cabin.

The crew initiated an emergency evacuation. 5 occupants received minor injuries in the evacuations.

The aircraft received substantial damage, the fire burned through the right hand side of the cockpit leaving a hole of about the size of the first officer's side window in the fuselage just below that window.

A replacement Boeing 777-200 registration SU-GBR reached Jeddah with a delay of 4.5 hours.

Cairo airport officials reported an electrical cockpit fire was reported extinguished 25 minutes after the alert, the passengers were evacuated, their luggage remained intact.

Two fire fighters were taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation.

Cairo Civil Defense reported 7 people were taken to local hospitals.

A passenger reported the emergency exits were not opened, all passengers vacated the aircraft through the smoke and the main doors.

Early stages of fire before arrival of fire fighters (Video: taaaamer1):

[phkza]

Whoa, looks serious! Good thing it didn't happen in the air...

[patrick@tediek.com]

wauw. they were so lucky not being at +30.000ft. this shows how the seriousness of an inflight fire..

[phkza]

That's a pretty large hole:

[Stratofreighter]

That's a pretty large hole:

That's a pretty big chance this triple-Seven is now a write-off...

[flying_kiwi]

That's a pretty large hole:

That's a pretty big chance this triple-Seven is now a write-off...

I'd expect so.
If the fire was hot enough to achieve burn-through, then the entire cockpit area is most likely severely damaged by both heat and the water used to extinguish the fire. That won't be cheap to fix, and on a 14 year old aircraft, I can't imagine that the scrap value and costs of repairs will be too far apart.

[patrick@tediek.com]

interesting to know what fuels that fire to have that much energy to burn through.

[Optimus]

Maybe a long shot, but what are the chances of leaving something like glasses in the cockpit and exposing it to direct sunlight and as such creating the same effect as a magnifying glass transferring the sun's light and creating a hotspot? Can this happen when leaving the window open on the port side, as the sun is also on the right hand side of the plane (by looking at the shadows on the platform on the video)?

Kees

[Stratofreighter]

Where are the oxygen bottles stored on a Boeing 777? There aren't air hoses running under the cockpit windows, are there

[jfaltena]

That's a pretty large hole:

Unfortunately the link does not work anymore...

[Stratofreighter]

That's a pretty large hole:

Unfortunately the link does not work anymore...

Try these...

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/uf/14512/m ... prdpS.jpeg

http://media.photobucket.com/image/egyp ... ocpit3.jpg

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h135/ ... ocpit3.jpg

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/13 ... 2.jpg/sr=1 (left side )

[Raptor16]

That last one is definatly not a 777, window is too small and the windowis too close to the door, my guess would be a CRJ or something like that.

[Stratofreighter]

The final report on this incident concerning Egyptair Boeing 777-200 SU-GBP was released.

And http://avherald.com/h?article=44078aa7/0000&opt=0 now has some photos showing how it looked on in the inside when all fires were finally put out...

[janneman36]

Strange that none of the crew decided to evacuate via the slides with so much smoke coming from the aircraft and so many passengers on board...