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Spirit Airlines found itself in a sticky situation at its maintenance facility on July 4th at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW). The 126,000-square-foot facility opened in 2017 and cost the airline around $32 million. A system malfunction (likely caused by lightning) set off the fire suppression system and filled the massive space with tons of foam.
While this may look like a foam party, the corrosive nature of the foam is not something you’d want on your skin or on an aircraft. It poses a threat to the engines and other aircraft systems. Spirit had two aircraft parked in the hangar (an Airbus A320 and A321) when the system was triggered. It flowed out of the facility and also impacted three of the four Airbus A320 aircraft that were parked outside on the ramp. These will all need to be cleaned and inspected before they can be used for flights.
Spirit Airlines issued the following statement:
On July 4, the fire suppression system at our Detroit (DTW) maintenance facility was inadvertently activated, which we believe was caused by lightning nearby. There was no fire, and no injuries were reported. Two aircraft parked inside the facility and one aircraft parked outside the facility were removed from service for inspection by our maintenance team. We have engaged a contractor to assist with cleanup efforts, and we thank first responders for their quick response and assistance. There is no impact to our flight operations.”
Spirit has been struggling to reinvent itself and become profitable over the past year. This has included exiting bankruptcy after only four months, renaming its cabins to have a true First Class offering, and has plans for extra legroom, upgrades, and more. Having to take several aircraft out of service is not going to help Spirit in any way.
It’s incredibly expensive to clean up messes caused by this corrosive foam. Paddle Your Own Kanoo shared more:
Even minor foam intrusion can cost from $100,000 per aircraft to cleanup, while serious foam flooding is estimated to cost as much as $10 million. The foam is so corrosive that work needs to start within 24 hours to prevent serious damage from being caused.
In 2014, an Airbus A340 belonging to German flag carrier Lufthansa suffered damage estimated at $5 million to repair following a foam fire suppression system activation at its Frankfurt maintenance hangar.”
Anthony’s Take: This is a mess, but one that can be cleaned up and addressed. Luckily, there was no one injured and it was not a real fire in the hangar.
(Featured Image Credit: @fl360aero via X.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
