Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

New airport hangar gets covered in foam after ‘accidental discharge’

Incident occurred in Delta Air Lines’ new hangar

Helen Coffey
Thursday 26 March 2020 09:35 EDT
Comments
The Delta hangar was covered in foam
The Delta hangar was covered in foam (Airliners.net/Tankdiver)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

An airport hangar was completely covered in foam after an “accidental discharge” earlier this week.

The incident occurred at Delta Air Lines’ new hangar at Los Angeles International Airport, reports Simply Flying.

Video and photos shared on social media show the tarmac outside the hangar completely covered in several inches of foam, with an aircraft parked in the middle of it.

The deluge looks like fresh snow, and appears to extend tens of metres from the hangar.

Jason Rabinowitz shared a picture of the spectacle on Twitter with the caption: “Found on anet and totally unconfirmed, the fire suppression foam system at Delta’s LAX hangar was accidentally triggered and made a very big (and expensive) mess.”

Twitter user Alex replied: “Video posted on Snapchat seems to confirm that the fire suppression foam system was activated last night.”

The story and pictures were originally shared on aviation forum Airliners.net.

“Delta’s LAX new hanger had an accidental foam discharge overnight. It was pretty thick, up to the wings of some smaller aircraft,” read the original post.

One forum user posited it was caused by an aircraft that was backed into the hangar with an auxiliary power unit (APU), which triggered the fire suppression system.

A Delta spokesperson confirmed that the fire suppression system in the hangar malfunctioned and that this triggered the foam dispersal.

The airline said it is investigating the incident but that it caused no disruption to scheduled services.

Delta is working with its local environmental contractor to clean up the foam as quickly as possible.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in