Boeing 767 cargo plane seriously damaged by fire at San Francisco

June 30, 2008 A Boeing 767 cargo jetliner (tail number: N799AX) has been seriously damaged by a fire that broke out Saturday evening shortly after 22:00 PDT (UTC-7). It took two hours to extinguish the fire on board the Airborne Express aircraft, which was parked at a mail processing area of San Francisco International Airport in California, United States.

Airborne Express Flight 1611 had arrived earlier and since then was parked at an area that a Federal Aviation Administration described as "far away from regular traffic," known as Plot No. 11. The fire broke out behind the cockpit, which contained two pilots at the time who were able to escape the fire.

Roads around the airport were closed for ten minutes while crews responded, and 100 people were evacuated from a nearby building. The fire was described as intense and producing thick amounts of black smoke. Airport Duty Manager Lilly Wang said of the damage, "You can actually see through the top of the aircraft. It spread all the way through."

An investigation into the cause is underway. It is unclear if there was cargo on board at the time. No injuries were reported.