Source: Simon Hradecky | www.avherald.com

An Air China Airbus A330-300, registration B-5958 performing flight CA-183 from Beijing (China) to Tokyo Haneda (Japan), was boarding for departure, when smoke emanated from the aircraft prompting a rapid disembarkation of the people on board, cabin and flight crew vacated the aircraft via the jet bridge after all passengers. Emergency services responded and extinguished a fire in the forward cargo hold. There were no injuries, the aircraft received substantial damage.

The airline reported: “On August 27th Beijing time, the CA183 flight from Beijing to Tokyo, during the passenger boarding, found that the cargo space in front of the aircraft smoked, the crew quickly took fire-fighting measures and organized the safe evacuation of all passengers. The specific cause of the incident is under investigation.”

The aircraft had arrived as flight CA-976 from Singapore (Singapore) about two hours earlier.