Definition

Post-crash fires are fires which occur after an aircraft has crash landed or has impacted obstacles or other aircraft during ground movement, runway incursion, or runway excursion.

Description

In the event of an impact with the ground or an obstacle that results in structural damage to an aircraft, a fuel-fed fire can start if fuel comes into contact with ignition sources. Equally, if flammable material, carried as dangerous goods on a civil aircraft or as cargo by a military aircraft, is damaged or the containment compromised, it may ignite as a consequence of impact, contact with hot surfaces or, in the case of spillage of unstable chemicals, the atmosphere.