Seven early-morning flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport were briefly disrupted yesterday following a minor fire incident in Terminal 2.
The fire erupted in an X-ray baggage scanner near the C1 boarding gate at about 5:30am. Aviation police detected the smoke from a surveillance device and notified the fire department as well as Taoyuan International Airport Corp.
The fire was extinguished at about 7am. No fatalities or injuries were reported.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
However, the X-ray scanner was severely damaged. The airport also had to close the C1 boarding gate, as the water discharged from the fire sprinkler system on the ceiling had left water all over the floor.
The Aviation Police Office said the airport had moved the X-ray scanner from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 to assist with the second security screening for flights departing for the US.
The aviation police also found that although the scanner had not been unplugged, the machine was turned off when the fire started, adding that the most recent maintenance on the equipment was done two weeks ago.
It will conduct further investigations to determine the cause of the fire, the police said.
Of the flights that were affected by the incident, two were incoming and five were outbound flights.
The incident put another dent in the reputation of the nation’s largest international airport, which has been under criticism in recent years following a series of incidents related to aviation safety and airport security.
In July, a woman entered the airport’s restricted area through a crack between a cement wall and barbed wire and eventually boarded a China Airlines flight.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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