New Delhi: An Air India aircraft, bound to San Francisco from Delhi, caught fire on Wednesday night at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI). The Boeing 777 was still at bay when it caught fire, and there were no passengers on board.
Maintenance work was being undertaken, and fire tenders were immediately brought in, but by then the damage was done.
Air India issued a statement and said, "Yesterday night at Delhi when an engineer was doing a routine technical examination of an empty aircraft(777) APU auto shut down took place.
Airport fire personnel observed black fumes from the auxiliary power unit (APU) exhaust and believing it to be a fire hazard sprayed the APU and a part of the fuselage with foam spray.
After this event, APU was examined by opening its cowlings, and there were no traces of any burn or external damage noticed except for the minor oil leak traces, which was normal. A detailed inspection is going on."
An inquiry is ordered to ascertain the reason behind the fire.