Incident: Jetstar A332 near Guam on Jun 11th 2009, cockpit fire over Pacific
By Simon Hradecky, created Wednesday, Jun 10th 2009 22:23Z, last updated Thursday, Jun 11th 2009 06:45Z
A Jetstar Airbus A330-200, registration VH-EBF performing flight JQ-20 (departing June 10th) from Osaka Kansai (Japan) to Bilinga Gold Coast,QL (Australia) with 190 passengers and 13 crew, was about 4 hours into the flight at 01:38am local (15:38Z Jun 10th), when the flight crew noticed smoke coming from the right hand side of the cockpit. Moments later the heating of the right hand cockpit window caught fire. The captain managed to put out the flames using a fire extinguisher. The crew declared emergency and decided to divert to Guam (Guam), where the airplane landed safely at 02:13am local (16:13Z Jun 10th) and taxied to a gate. No injuries occured.
Attending fire services confirmed the presence of smoke in the cockpit, but were able to terminate the emergency a few minutes after all passengers and crew had disembarked normally.
A replacement A330-200 has been dispatched to Guam and is expected to arrive by 6:20pm local (08:20Z).
The Australian Transportation Safety Board (ATSB) takes the incident very seriously and has dispatched 4 investigators to Guam.