A retired and stored British Airways Boeing 747-400 caught fire today in Castellon, Spain. In video posted online today by the responding fire agency, it appears that the fire started in/near the cockpit of the jet. Footage showed extensive damage to the cockpit of aircraft.
No cause of fire has been released but it is common for retired aircraft to undergo extensive work to remove valuable avionics, and equipment prior to scrapping. It easily could have been caused by an electrical fault or via a scrapper’s torch.
Jet was once BA’s former ‘One World’ flagship
The tail G-CIVD was one of the more photographed ‘Queen of the Skies’ jets. It formerly served as the British Airways’ ‘One World’ flagship jet. The Boeing 747-400 first flew on November 23, 1994. The aircraft served faithfully until earlier in 2020 when it was parked as part of a cost-cutting effort by British Airways in the wake of the COVID pandemic. British Airways eventually announced that they retired the fleet with immediate effect in August. British Airways posted video of its last flight which took place on August 18th. It departed from London’s Heathrow to Castellon, Spain.
Almost exactly 26 years to the day after its first flight, G-CIVD suffered the fire that will lead to an accelerated end to its otherwise relatively uneventful career of service.
