Polar Cargo B744 near Petropavlovsk on Mar 14th 2020, fire indication on board

Last Update: March 16, 2020 / 22:41:37 GMT/Zulu time

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Photo of Polar Air Cargo N450PA, Boeing 747-400 — Polar Air Cargo N450PA, Boeing 747-400 (Photo credit: lkarasawa / Flickr / License: CC by)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Mar 14, 2020

Classification
Incident

Airline
Polar Air Cargo

Departure
Los Angeles, United States

Destination
Tokyo Narita, Japan

Aircraft Registration
N450PA

Aircraft Type
Boeing 747-400

ICAO Type Designator
B744

A Polar Air Cargo Boeing 747-400, registration N450PA performing freight flight PO-717 (dep Mar 13th) from Los Angeles,CA (USA) to Tokyo Narita (Japan), was enroute at FL380 about 230nm southeast of Petropavlovsk (Russia) when the crew descended the aircraft to FL250, declared emergency and diverted to Petropavlovsk. Due to weather the aircraft could not land in Petropavlovsk (like four other domestic Russian flights) and entered a hold for about 20 minutes. The aircraft subsequently diverted to Shemya,AK (USA) where the aircraft landed safely about 2.5 hours after leaving FL380 and about 90 minutes after exiting the hold near Petropavlovsk.

A local Russian media reported according to preliminary data the Boeing attempted to divert to Petropavlovsk due to a fire on board.

Russian aviation fora report the aircraft attempted to divert to Petropavlovsk reporting "something like a fire".

Russia's news agency TASS reported four domestic flights could not land in Petropavlovsk and diverted due to a "Pacific Cyclone" with heavy snow fall and winds of up to 40 knots affected the southern part of Kamchatka (including Petropavlovsk). The agency later reported the crew received a fire indication on board and could not land in Petropavlovsk, too, and diverted to Shemya.

The aircraft remained on the ground in Shemya for about 26.5 hours, then continued the flight to Tokyo and continued service.

On Mar 16th 2020 the FAA reported the crew received a fire warning indication and ultimately diverted to Shemya,AK (USA) for a safe landing. The indication was determined to have been faulty, there was no active fire.

Metars Petropavlovsk:
UHPP 132230Z 14015G21MPS 1600 1100N R16/1100U SHSN BLSN VV007 01/01 Q0994 R16R/350137 NOSIG RMK MT OBSC QFE742/0990=
UHPP 132200Z 13014G20MPS 0900 R16/0900N SHSN BLSN VV007 01/01 Q0994 R16R/350137 NOSIG RMK MT OBSC QFE742/0990=
UHPP 132130Z 13015G20MPS 0700 0400N R16/0650U +SHSN BLSN VV007 01/01 Q0995 R16R/350137 NOSIG RMK MT OBSC QFE743/0991=
UHPP 132100Z 13014G19MPS 0550 0350N R16/0650D +SHSN BLSN VV007 00/00 Q0995 R16R/350137 NOSIG RMK MT OBSC QFE743/0991=
UHPP 132030Z 13014G19MPS 0650 0400N R16/0650N +SHSN BLSN VV008 00/00 Q0996 R16R/350137 NOSIG RMK MT OBSC QFE744/0992=
UHPP 132000Z 13013G20MPS 0500 0300N R34/0750N +SHSN BLSN VV009 00/00 Q0996 R34L/350137 NOSIG RMK QFE744/0992=
UHPP 131930Z 13014G20MPS 0600 0550N R34/1400N +SHSN BLSN VV007 01/01 Q0997 R34L/350137 NOSIG RMK QFE744/0993=
UHPP 131900Z 14012G17MPS 0700 0600N R34/1800N +SHSN BLSN VV009 01/01 Q0998 R34L/350137 NOSIG RMK QFE745/0994=
UHPP 131830Z 13012G18MPS 0800 R34/1800D +SHSN BLSN BKN011 OVC020CB 01/M00 Q0999 R34L/350137 NOSIG RMK QFE746/0994=
UHPP 131800Z 13016G21MPS 0700 0500N R34/0700D +SHSN BLSN BKN012 OVC020CB 01/M01 Q1000 R34L/CLRD70 NOSIG RMK QFE746/0995=
UHPP 131700Z 10013G18MPS 0650 0400N R34/0800U +SHSN BLSN BKN010 OVC020CB M01/M01 Q1001 R34L/CLRD70 NOSIG RMK QFE747/0996=
UHPP 131600Z 11007G12MPS 1700 1300N R34/1700D SHSN BLSN SCT013 OVC023CB M01/M03 Q1003 R34L/CLRD70 NOSIG RMK QFE749/0999=
UHPP 131500Z 12007G12MPS 1400 R34/1400D SHSN BLSN FEW014 OVC025CB M01/M03 Q1005 R34L/CLRD70 NOSIG RMK QFE750/1000=
UHPP 131400Z 11006MPS 5000 -SHSN OVC018CB M03/M05 Q1006 R34L/CLRD70 NOSIG RMK QFE751/1002=