Flying halted after Italian aircraft bursts into flames (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Flying halted after Italian aircraft bursts into flames

FLYING was halted at the weekend Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford when an aircraft of the Italian Air Force burst into flames on landing.

The fire was caused by the collapse of the nosewheel on the twin-engined G-222 after it made a heavy landing, following a steep approach at the end of its display.

The aircraft nose dropped to the runway and although the G-222 - a scaled-down version of the RAF Hercules - was brought to a halt within yards, the friction caused flames to blaze backwards into the under-carriage.

The three-man crew escaped unhurt, tumbling on to the tarmac over the rear ramp, and emergency fire crews doused the fire within three minutes.

Although flying was resumed an hour after the incident, which happened at 11.35am on Saturday, the main tattoo programme was severely disrupted.

Organisers were able to operate Harrier jump jets, helicopters, light aircraft and gliders, but the newly-resurfaced main runway was out of use for three hours while heavy lifting equipment was brought in to move the G-222.

The fire also damaged a stretch of the runway surface.

"No-one involved in the incident was injured, and there was no danger whatever to any members of the public," said a spokesman for RIAT.

In fact, he said, officially the accident was being classified as "a ground incident" since it had not occurred in the air, and no major inquiries were planned.

"Obviously the Italian Air Force will be investigating what happened and preparing a report," he said.

"Their engineers are now working on repairing and servicing the aircraft, and we are confident that it will be flying out during the week."

On Sunday, the full eight-hour flying programme took place.