Two prop airliners were destroyed by fire on Saturday and Sunday while parked in their respective hangars in different corners of the world.
The first conflagration took out a CSA Czech Airlines ATR 42-500 aircraft when an explosion sparked a fire in Hangar F at Prague Ruzyne Airport. Photos showed damage contained mostly to the smoldering pile of wreckage that once was OK-KFM. Delivered just seven years ago, the prop, leased from Air Contractors, has been written off. A second plane, OK-JFK, was also slightly damaged.
At V.C. Bird International Airport in St. John’s, Antigua, the main hangar of LIAT (Leeward Islands Air Transport) burned to the ground, destroying offices, aircraft and personnel records and a Bombardier Dash 8-300, V2-LGH. One airline official called the fire “a disaster.”
Thankfully no one was injured in either incident, but the financial hit for both airlines, which are already struggling, could be significant.
It was not immediately clear what caused either fire.
