Air India flight to San Francisco catches fire at Delhi airport

The auxiliary power unit (APU) of an Air India flight caught fire at the Delhi airport while undergoing repair on Wednesday night.

The aircraft, Boeing B777-200LR (VT-ALF), was bound for a flight to San Francisco. The incident took place while the aircraft was still at the bay.

Authorities in Air India said maintenance work was going on and added that at the time of the incident there were no passengers on the aircraft.

In a statement released on Thursday, Air India 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 APU exhaust and believing it to be a fire hazard sprayed APU and part of the fuselage with foam spray.”

Air India added in its statement, “After this event, APU was examined by opening its cowlings and there was no trace of any burn or external damage noticed except for the minor oil leaks traces, which was normal. A detailed inspection is going.”