A passenger flight from Japan to Australia was forced to make an
emergency landing in Guam on Thursday after a small fire broke out
in the cockpit due to an electrical problem, the airline said.
There were no injuries.
The Airbus 330-200 was the same type of plane that crashed last
week in the Atlantic Ocean, but the incidents appear unrelated and
an airline official said problem didn't raise any new safety
concerns about the aircraft.
The Jetstar plane was about four hours into its flight from Osaka
to Australia's Gold Coast when the pilots noticed a small flame and
smoke in the cockpit near the window, spokesman Simon Westaway
said. A pilot used a fire extinguisher to put out the fire, which
did not spread to the cabin, he said.
The plane, which was carrying 190 passengers and 13 crew members,
landed without incident at Guam International Airport. The
passengers were expected to board another plane and finish their
journey to Australia later Thursday.
David Epstein, General Manager for Government and Corporate Affairs
of Jetstar's parent Qantas Airways, said the electric connector of
the heating element in the cockpit had malfunctioned, causing
sparks and smoke but the situation was quickly brought under
control.
The heating element is used to ensure that the cockpit windows
don't fog up as the plane flies in cold air at high altitudes, he
said.
Epstein said the incident does not raise any new safety concerns
about the A330-220.
Last week, an Air France A330-200 went down while flying from
Brazil to France, killing 228 people on board. Investigators are
trying to determine the cause of that accident.
"The failure of the electrical connector has no bearing on our
flight control system and it doesn't raise any new safety concern
about the (A330-200) plane," Epstein said.
He said such incidents were not uncommon, as it has happened before
on one of Qantas Boeing 747 aircraft.
Passengers Adam Power and Michelle Foord said the smell of smoke
wafted through the cabin, although they did not suspect a fire.
"Four hours into the flight, we smelt like, popcorn," Power told
KUAM News television at Guam.
"It didn't smell like fire," Foord added. "Someone mentioned
something about a window."
The Jetstar plane in question had begun flying in 2007, Epstein
said.
Qantas was sending engineers to Guam Thursday to inspect the plane,
which is under quarantine there, and the Australian Transport
Safety Bureau will lead an investigation into the cause of the
fire, he said.
___
Associated Press writer Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,
contributed to this story.