Gossip: Another Boeing 787 caught fire at Heathrow

A second Boeing 787 Dreamliner has been grounded at Manchester Airport around the same time as the Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet caught fire at Heathrow.

The London airport came to a standstill after a Boeing 787 Dreamliner caught fire on the runway, forcing all arrivals and departures to be temporarily suspended while fire crew dealt with the incident.

A fire crew were sent to a parked Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet at approximately 4.30pm Friday afternoon.

There were no passengers on the plane when the fire broke out and there are no reported injuries, a Heathrow Airport spokesman said.

Footage show the jet parked close to what appears to be an airport terminal, surrounded by several fire trucks and there appeared to be damage to the top of the plane's fuselage.

The Thomson plane, which took off at 12.10 today, was heading to Florida when it was forced to return to Manchester Airport.

'Thomson Airways can confirm that flight TOM126 travelling from Manchester to Sanford, Florida experienced a technical issue and the aircraft returned to Manchester Airport, as a precautionary measure,' Thomson Airways, owned by TUI Travel, said in a statement.

The company added that passengers had disembarked and that its engineers were inspecting the aircraft in Manchester.
The incident occurred just days after Thomson got its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Shares in Boeing fell over six per cent this afternoon, shortly after the incident was reported.

A company spokesman said Boeing are 'working to fully understand and address this'.

'We're aware of the event and we have Boeing personnel on the ground at Heathrow,' the spokesperson added.