[Hongde Information] The cargo plane worth 2.3 billion yuan at Pudong Airport was burned down. The investigation results showed that the freight forwarder concealed the spontaneous combustion of the checked disinfection tablets.

Hongde International reported that on July 22, 2020, a Boeing 777 all-cargo plane of Ethiopian Airlines (hereinafter referred to as Ethiopian Airlines) carrying out international cargo flights completed cargo loading at Flight 306 of Shanghai Pudong Airport and the door was closed waiting for departure. The cargo plane crew found a fire in the cargo compartment, visible smoke and open flames in the main cargo compartment, and then the crew announced the highest distress signal "MAYDAY" on the ground ". After nearly three hours of fighting, the open fire of the Boeing 777F all-cargo plane numbered ET-ARH was extinguished, and the relevant news became the focus of media attention on the same day.

On January 7, the investigation report of the aviation accident obtained by upstream journalists showed that the cause of the fire in the cargo hold of Ethiopia's air cargo plane was not the electrical failure of the aircraft or the fire of cargo containing lithium batteries, as previously speculated by public opinion,Officials determined that the most likely cause of the fire was that the chlorine dioxide disinfection tablets loaded in the main cargo compartment ignited spontaneously in a high temperature and humid environment, which directly led to the scrapping of the all-cargo plane with an average market price of about 2.3 billion yuan.

The 777-200 model launched by Boeing Company of the United States is the first model in the Boeing 777 family, and the first model was released in 1990. The Ethiopian Airlines B777-200LR is a long-range model of Boeing 777-200. When it was put into use in 2006, it was the longest passenger plane in the world at that time. It had a range of more than 17500 kilometers and could fly continuously for 18 hours. According to the price of an order between Emirates and Boeing in recent years, the price of a single Boeing 777-200LR cargo plane is 0.34 billion US dollars, about 2.3 billion yuan.

On July 22, 2020, Ethiopian Airlines' Boeing B777-200LR all-cargo ET-ARH stopped at seat 306 of Pudong Airport after carrying out a cargo flight from Brussels, Belgium to Pudong, Shanghai. After completing the unloading and loading work and replacing five crew members during the short stop at the station, the plane is ready to carry out the next ET3739 flight from Pudong, Shanghai to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, via Chongqing. The flight is expected to take off at 14:30 Beijing time on the same day. Because of the cargo loading, flight ET3739 completed the installation and closed the cargo door at about 15 o'clock on the same day. The plane was loaded with 69.3 tons of cargo collected from all over the country, which was ready to be transported to Africa, South America and other places through the plane. There was no abnormality in the loading process.

At 15: 14: 04 on the same day, the danger began to appear. ET3739 crew reported to Pudong Airport in English that there was a fire in the cargo compartment of the aircraft and fire fighting vehicles were needed. At 15: 19 five minutes later, the crew contacted the ground control again and urged the fire engine to arrive as soon as possible. At 15:21:32, the crew of Ethiopia Airlines flight ET3739 issued the highest level of distress call signal "MAYDAY" for civil aircraft on the ground of Pudong Airport, saying that the aircraft caught fire and needed fire rescue. At 15: 25, the Pudong Airport fire truck arrived at the 306, but no smoke or open fire was found at the scene of the fire report. The left front boarding door and cargo door of the plane were then opened one after another, and the crew also evacuated the plane one after another. At 15:35, an open fire appeared in the main cargo compartment of the plane, and the fire engines at the scene began to discharge water to extinguish the fire.

In the cargo plane fire rescue of Ethiopia Airlines, not only Pudong Airport Fire Department participated in the fire fighting and rescue work, but also the Shanghai Fire Rescue Corps dispatched the corps, Pudong Detachment full service headquarters and 20 fire stations including Chuansha, Zhuqiao, Shenjiang, Chuanzhan, Jinqiao and Longyang. 38 vehicles and more than 200 fire officers and fighters of various types of combat, command and communication were deployed to deal with them. Three hours later, at 18:14, the fire was brought under control.

Upstream news reporters noticed that during the entire rescue period, the busy Shanghai Pudong Airport was announced to be closed at 16:40, and all operations resumed at 18:30 nearly two hours later. The incident caused 16 incoming flights to alternate and 34 flights to be delayed.

After the on-site emergency response was completed, the Ethiopian air cargo plane fire incident immediately moved to the accident investigation stage. According to the authorization of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the East China Bureau of Civil Aviation and others are responsible for the specific investigation of this matter. The investigation team found that the fire area of the aircraft was limited to the Ethiopian Airlines B777-200LR/ET-ARH aircraft, the upper half of the fuselage was burned through in many places, and the interior of the main cargo compartment was seriously burned. There is smoke in the main structure and equipment of the lower fuselage. The appearance is intact, but there may be heat damage. There is no obvious fire or smoke in the outer wing area, engine area, landing gear area and other fuselage areas.

During the investigation, the investigation team first investigated the ET-ARH of the Boeing 777-200LR all-cargo plane that caught fire. As of the time of the incident, the cargo plane that left the factory in September 2014 had completed 4286 flight takeoffs and landings, with a total flight time of 26740 hours. Before the flight took off, the random crew of Ethiopia Airlines completed the short stop inspection of the plane. The results were normal and there were no reserved faults. The regular inspections completed about one month before the plane was normal. On the day of the incident, the on-site video surveillance at Pudong Airport showed that there was no smoke overflow from the relevant parts of the fuselage during the period from the fire alarm in the main cargo compartment to the smoke emission from the opening of the main cargo compartment door. The crew also reported that no other warning or fault information was found except for the smoke alarm, and the suspicion of spontaneous combustion caused by the aircraft's own fault was eliminated.

Upstream news reporters noted that in recent years, there have been many cases of spontaneous combustion of lithium batteries at home and abroad that have caused aircraft fires. After the Ethiopia aviation fire incident, some public opinions also questioned whether it was due to the spontaneous combustion of cargo containing lithium batteries carried by cargo planes.When the investigation team investigated the loading of the goods, the cargo warehouse receipt information showed that the Ethiopan Airlines fire passenger plane was carrying nearly 70 tons of goods, mainly loaded with masks, thermometers, protective clothing and other epidemic prevention materials, of which 4 tickets containing lithium battery electronic products, no declaration of other dangerous goods.

The investigation team found that the four goods containing lithium batteries were cash registers, mesh atomizers, vehicle-mounted hard disk video recording equipment and facial cleansers. After on-site inspection, the 50 mesh atomizers and 15 Hisense cash registers found at the scene of the incident were consistent with the name, quantity and location of the waybill. After checking each piece of equipment one by one, the staff also found that the mesh atomizer was basically in good condition, and only part of the plastic box of the outer package melted. Only 2 of the 15 Hisense cash registers were seriously burned. After dismantling, the metal shell was discolored due to heat and showed light weight on the outside. The internal circuit board was basically in good condition. The fire of lithium battery related items was confirmed to be caused by external fire. The suspicion of spontaneous combustion of aircraft was ruled out.

The investigation team's eyes returned to the scene again. The first problem that needs to be solved is the determination of the location of the aircraft fire. The on-site investigation shows that the cargo in PR position of the main cargo compartment of the aircraft is burned and collapsed most seriously. The corresponding fuselage shell structure has the lowest burning position. The burning marks of the tail pressure bulkhead and the missing burning position of APU feeder all point to PR position for fire. Based on the earliest discolored part of the skin in the surveillance video and the earliest fault area displayed by the cargo smoke detection controller, the investigator comprehensively determines that the fire is located at PR position on the right side of the main cargo compartment.

Further investigation by the investigation team found that the goods loaded at PR position contained a total of 6 tickets, and the goods recorded in the waybill included antibody detection kits, cash registers containing lithium batteries, nano slow-release clean materials containing chlorine dioxide, medical masks and scented tea, etc. After ruling out the suspicion of a lithium battery cash register fire, the nano-release clean material containing chlorine dioxide became the focus of the investigation.

Materials obtained by upstream journalists show that the goods containing chlorine dioxide were purchased and consigned by Xu from a certain place in Zhejiang Province. The goods are mainly used for epidemic prevention and disinfection and are ready to be transported by air to a certain country in South America after domestic procurement. On June 22, 2020, the owner of the goods, Xu, signed a contract with a domestic supplier for the purchase of chlorine dioxide disinfection machine and disinfection supplies containing chlorine dioxide "disinfection shield", and then entrusted others to pay for the goods, agreeing that the ticket goods will be sent to the consignee by express delivery. Air cargo transportation statistics show that there are 96 boxes of goods involving chlorine dioxide, including a total of 10000 small packets of disinfection powder and 100 bags of chlorine dioxide disinfection tablets.

The cargo identification certificate made by the Shanghai Institute of Chemical Industry provided by the owner shows that the nano-slow-release clean material involved (containing 1% chlorine dioxide adsorbed on the nano-material) is "non-restricted cargo", the nano-slow-release clean material (powder particles) is "dangerous goods", and the danger is "oxidant (primary) and corrosive (secondary)".

After confirming the fire location, fire point and other information, the investigation team used the exclusion method to investigate man-made damage, fire entrainment, lithium battery fire, aircraft electrical fire and other aspects. After excluding the above fire causes, the goods loaded at the fire point were investigated according to the burning wreckage status of the aircraft at the scene of the accident, the suspicious goods were experimentally verified, and the fire items were determined to be chlorine dioxide disinfection tablets.

Why did chlorine dioxide tablets, which are used for epidemic prevention and disinfection, catch fire in the cargo hold of the aircraft? Investigators found that meteorological data from Pudong Airport showed that the highest temperature in Shanghai on the day of the incident was over 34 degrees Celsius, and that open-air stacking was common in domestic air cargo terminals, which was shown to be the most common in the world,The maximum ambient temperature inside the cargo accumulated pallet can reach nearly 80 degrees. The chlorine dioxide disinfection tablets found at the fire point PR pallet have the risk of spontaneous combustion under high temperature and damp conditions.

Root simulation experiments conducted by investigators confirmed that under meteorological conditions similar to those on the day of the incident on July 22, 2020, the temperature inside the stack was much higher than the ambient temperature, condensation occurred on the inside of the film, and sufficient conditions for spontaneous combustion occurred due to unfavorable heat dissipation. The investigation team judged that the most likely cause of the fire on the ground of the cargo plane was the spontaneous combustion of the airborne chlorine dioxide disinfection tablets.

Upstream news reporters combed and found that the spontaneous combustion of chlorine dioxide products on Ethiopia's air cargo plane had been identified as "dangerous goods" by professional organizations before consignment, but why was it unimpeded and delivered to the plane?

The investigation showed that during the consignment of the relevant goods, the goods provided by the owner to Zhejiang Jietong, the consignment unit, were named "intelligent sprayer, chlorine dioxide disinfection shield, chlorine dioxide disinfectant, packaging bag and sealing machine". Jietong Company knew that the chemicals contained in the goods should have two identification certificates, and the identification conclusions were "non-restricted goods" and "dangerous goods" respectively. After Jietong Company communicated with Wang Mou, the owner's manager, it was decided that only the name of the sample whose identification conclusion was "non-restricted goods" was "nano slow-release clean material (containing 1% chlorine dioxide adsorbed on nanomaterials)" to carry out subsequent entrusted business, and only the name of the goods was declared as "nano slow-release clean material (containing 1% chlorine dioxide adsorbed on nanomaterials)",Failure to truthfully declare the dangerous goods disinfection powder, chlorine dioxide disinfection tablets, etc. actually contained in the goods, "the act is suspected of concealing the name of the goods and consigning dangerous goods under the name of non-dangerous goods."

The investigation team further found that when the relevant chlorine dioxide products with the greatest possibility of spontaneous combustion entered the site for security check two days before the incident, the security personnel had paid attention to the granular substances suspected of chemicals in the goods, and accordingly issued instructions to the unpacking clerk to check the chemical transportation documents. The unpacking security personnel then checked the shipping marks and transportation documents of the outer packaging of the goods to confirm that the name of the goods was consistent with the transportation documents. After checking that the shipping marks, images and transportation documents were consistent, the security personnel released the goods in the box.

As to whether the cargo security check at Pudong Airport involved violations, the investigation team checked back the images of the cargo containing chlorine dioxide passing through the X-ray machine. The images showed that the suspicious areas were consistent with the particles described in the column "Sample Appearance" in the "Identification of Cargo Transportation Conditions" of the nano slow-release clean material. The operation of the cargo security check at the airport met the requirements of the "Civil Aviation Security Inspection Manual.

After complete and meticulous work, the investigation team determined that in the fire accident at Pudong Airport of Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 777 cargo plane, the most likely cause of the fire was that the chlorine dioxide disinfection tablets loaded in the main cargo compartment spontaneously ignited in a high temperature and humid environment, causing a fire. There are no disastrous consequences such as fuel tank explosion, aircraft disintegration and casualties. In addition, in the incident, there were also situations in which the apron control personnel of Pudong Airport did not accurately and completely transmit information such as emergency status and cargo compartment fire, the Ethiopian Airlines crew did not dispose of the cargo compartment door according to the manual, and did not implement emergency evacuation emotions, etc. The aircraft had more potential risks.

According to the relevant conclusions of the investigation report, it is recommended that the International Civil Aviation Organization further study and refine the air transportation conditions of different levels of chlorine dioxide disinfection supplies, and that Pudong Airport further strengthen the training on the use of standard terms in the process of information transmission to ensure the accurate and smooth transmission of emergency response information. For Ethiopian Airlines, the investigation report recommends that the company improve the emergency response capacity of the unit to ensure that the procedures in the flight crew operation manual and the company's operation manual can be correctly completed.

Hongde International learned that the Civil Aviation Administration of China and Ethiopian Airlines have not disclosed relevant information to the outside world about the compensation for the loss of Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 777 cargo plane.

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