A commercial airliner was badly damaged Saturday, January 8, after a fire broke out after it was pushed from its parking lot to start the flight.
The incident in Hangzhou airport, China, was registered with the flight 4B-6534 of the Russian airline Aviastar, which will be the destination of Novosibirsk airport in Russia.
the Air Herald Reports indicate that the aircraft in question is the Tupolev TU-204 cargo ship registered under registration RA-64032. This aircraft is featured by Cainiao Decoration, which is a Chinese logistics company launched by Alibaba Group together with other companies, which also owns the AliExpress brand, which is very popular in digital commerce of products.
The plane will leave with 8 crew members and 20 tons of general cargo and was loaded with 26 tons of fuel. Reports indicate that it was actually pushed by the towing vehicle (the procedure is called “back-thrust”) when the fire started in the front of the fuselage.
Emergency services were called and the crew was able to safely evacuate, however, with support arriving for the aircraft about two minutes into the call, a fire was already seen emerging from atop the fuselage, irreparably destroying it. After some time, the fuselage still broke into two parts.
Latest photo of RA-64032, a Tu-204F that caught fire in Hangzhou, China in the early hours of January 08, 2022. The fuselage now appears to consist of 3 parts. (Photo courtesy of Weibo follower 少 喝奶茶 ). pic.twitter.com/BQOC2ZtS49
– FATIII Aviation (FATIIIAviation) January 8, 2022
At the time of publication of this article, there was no additional information indicating the exact point at which the fire started.
