Vietnam Airlines 777 engine on fire at Narita

[CathayPacific]

A Vietnam Airlines Boeing 777-200 aircraft flying from Ho Chi Minh City to Tokyo has one of its engines on fire almost 1 hour after arrival at NRT. The aircraft landed at 07:41 Jul 30 (local time) at NRT. All the passengers disembarked normally at the gate. The right engine started to emit smoke and then burn after about 1 hour at the gate. The fire was put out soon by firefighters.

I assume no one is on board at the time except some cleaning staff or crews preparing for the return trip. Don't know if operations at NRT (such as those at adjacent gates) are disrupted.

From Ming Pao newspaper in HongKong:

越航客機抵日後引擎起火 (11:16)
2008年7月30日

越南航空公司一架波音777客機，在日本東京成田機場降落後，右邊引擎冒煙起火。

事發在當地時間今早7時41分，該架客機由越南胡志明市飛抵東京後，右邊引擎冒煙，機師將飛機泊到客運站，乘客陸續下機，約一小時後，引掣起火，在場戒備的消防員隨即將火撲熄。

[Dmmoore]

Sounds like the burner drain was blocked and trapped fuel couldn't drain out cleanly.

[Jorge]

Sounds like the burner drain was blocked and trapped fuel couldn't drain out cleanly.

Could something like that happen inflight?

[Dmmoore]

Could something like that happen inflight?

No. In flight the engine is burning all the fuel being delivered to the burner nozzles.

To explain. A jet engine is shut down by turning off the fuel. The engine is hot and the fuel in the lines between the fuel nozzles and the MEC (where the fuel shutoff is located) begin to heat soak, the fuel expands and drizzles from the nozzles, into the hot burner area. A drain in the burner section allows the fuel to drain harmlessly out of the engine. If the burner drain is blocked, the fuel puddles, evaporates slowly in the form of smoke / vapor. An ignition source could ignite the vapor and the puddled fuel.

The quantity of fuel involved is <2 oz. Enough to blaze nicely if ignited. There are very few incidences such as this and it is not a factor during engine operation.

Before you ask, if an engine were shut down in flight, the airflow through the engine would quickly remove the fuel vapor.