Do not rush to exhale a sigh of relief as soon as your flight lands smoothly on the runway. That is what passengers on board a Boeing 737-800 operated by SkyUp Airlines must have learned when the aircraft caught fire shortly after landing at Sharm el-Sheikh Airport in Egypt.
On November 9, 2019, a SkyUp Boeing 737-800 (UR-SQH) was operating flight PQ7153 from Zaporizhzhia (OZH) in Ukraine to Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport (SSH) in Egypt. The aircraft landed at the seaside resort without incident and proceeded to taxi to the parking stand. Upon coming to a halt, a fire suddenly broke out on the plane’s left main landing gear.
SkyUp Boeing 737-800 (UR-SQH) on flight #PQ7153 taxied to its parking stand after landing runway 04 (L/R) at Sharm El Sheikh Intl Airport (HESH), Egypt when hydraulic fluid leaked onto hot brakes causing flames in the left maingear. The fire was exinguished quickly. pic.twitter.com/SpPM3E1kAZ
— JACDEC (@JacdecNew) November 9, 2019
According to the Egypt Independent, hydraulic fluid leaked onto the hot brakes of the jet causing a fire in the left main gear. Passengers were safely evacuated with no injuries reported. The Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Younes Al Masry praised the airport’s emergency crews for their swift reaction in containing the fire in an incident that could have turned into a “disaster”.
SkyUp is a Ukrainian low-cost and charter airline, which only recently began operations (in April 2018). The company operates an all-Boeing fleet of nine aircraft: six 737-800NGs, two 737-700NGs, and one 737-900ER jets. The age of the Boeing 737-800 involved in the incident (leased from Air Lease Corporation) is 15.8 years, planespotters.net data shows.