Ethiopian cargo plane catches fire in China

By Riyaz ul Khaliq and Addis Getachew

ANKARA, Turkey/ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AA) - An Ethiopian Airlines plane was damaged in a fire accident in China on Wednesday, local media reported.

A Boeing 777 ET-ARH cargo plane caught fire at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport in the afternoon (local time), an English-language Chinese newspaper the Global Times reported. The report said the fire was put out at 5:01 p.m. local time (0901GMT).

A statement issued by the Ethiopian Airlines said the plane caught fire while landing at the airport.

China's Civil Aviation Administration and the Ethiopian airline company have begun probing the incident.

The statement said all crew members had exited from the plane safely, while the cause of the fire was still unknown.

As the firefighters were busy dousing flames, authorities had briefly halted flight operation at the airport.

Ethiopian Airlines has been able to keep its businesses afloat in the lockdown period due to its cargo operations. It has converted its 25 Boeing 737 passenger aircrafts into cargo planes.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam said the cargo and maintenance services have helped his company to stay afloat after losing $55 billion due to travel restrictions enforced due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the past four months, Ethiopian cargo has been flying to 70 destinations across the world including Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Africa.

The International Air Transport Association has predicted that cargo operations will contribute 26% of airline industry revenue in 2020, up from 12% in 2019.