Pictures show dramatic fire that grounded Aer Lingus plane
New pictures show the scene of a fire as a crew in Florida prepared an Aer Lingus plane for a flight to Dublin last Friday. Flames are clearly seen at the door of the hold.
Passengers had been about to board flight EI120 when the fire broke out. One hundred and ninety-three passengers had been due to travel.
Two airport staff were taken to hospital after the suspected oil-pipe malfunction.
Hi Chris, a piece of ground service equipment caught fire while attending to one of our aircraft. EI120 is now cancelled.
— Aer Lingus (@AerLingus) October 6, 2016
A spokesman for Orlando International Airport confirmed that two baggage handlers from the airport staff were injured while loading Aer Lingus flight EI120, which was scheduled to fly to Dublin.
The transatlantic jet - an Aer Lingus A330 - remains grounded at Orlando Airport in Florida.
Meanwhile, Aer Lingus has cancelled six transatlantic flights from Shannon this week because of a shortage of aircraft, .
Today's Shannon to Boston service, and its return leg tonight, have been cancelled while there will be no Shannon/New York service tomorrow.
Almost 1,000 passengers have been forced to make alternative arrangements as a result of their planes being taken from Shannon and used on routes from Dublin.
The airline also cancelled Mondays EI-111 and EI-110 services so the plane could be used on the Dublin-Washington route.
A total of 258 passengers were affected by the last-minute cancellation which was blamed on “aircraft unavailability”.
The airline has been cancelling services from Shannon to free up aircraft.
One of those affected by tomorrow's cancellation is Mayor of Ennis Councillor Ann Norton who was due to fly to New York on a private trip.
"I am very disappointed that Aer lingus does not feel the need to prioritise Shannon as a gateway to the United States. I would question Aer Lingus’ commitment to Shannon because, not alone are they not catering for your their Mid-West clients but they are also putting jobs in jeopardy,” Mayor Norton said.
In March, Aer Lingus cancelled flights between Shannon and Boston over a whole weekend because of a technical problem with an aircraft and a replacement wasn’t available.
In October 2015, the airline cancelled a flight from Shannon to Boston because the aircraft was needed to operated a service from Dublin to Toronto.
Clare Fianna Fáil Deputy Timmy Dooley said: “The treatment of Shannon passengers by Aer Lingus is outrageous and clearly they are not as important as the airline's Dublin customers. Why can’t the airline have a replacement aircraft available for such eventualities?”
