A fire broke out in the cabin of a Qatar Airways Airbus A321 (A7-AIB) undergoing maintenance works at a remote stand at Doha-Hamad Airport.
There were no injuries as a result of the fire and the fire was promptly contained. A statement from the airline said:
“At 06:50am today a Qatar Airways Airbus A321 aircraft positioned at a remote stand experienced a fire whilst under maintenance at Hamad International Airport (HIA). The fire inside the cabin was promptly contained and extinguished. Whilst there was some damage to the aircraft there were no injuries. A full investigation is being conducted by the local authorities to establish the cause. Traffic at HIA was not affected and is running as normal.”
From Flytewise: “The aircraft has been extensively damaged, both inside and outside by the fire, as can be seen in the pictures. There is a large hole in the fuselage, which can be seen in the photo below (highlighted by the large circle). The hole in the fuselage can also be seen in the photo of the cabin interior, where you can see sunlight coming through it.” The Flytewise-website thinks that the aircraft is beyond repair.
Qatar Airways Airbus A321 (A7-AIB) was damaged beyond repair when a fire broke out in the cabin whilst undergoing maintenance works in a hangar at Doha-Hamad Intl Airport (OTHH) https://t.co/4f2zT1iNXW pic.twitter.com/RilU7GQzTE
— JACDEC (@JacdecNew) December 9, 2017
If Qatar has a good insurance, Airbus might increase its sales of A321s by one unit 😉