A suspected fire in the hold led a KLM plane flying from Rio de Janeiro to Amsterdam to make an emergency landing at Lajes airport in Terceira yesterday morning.

An informant from the Volunteer Fire Brigade told Antena 1 Açores that the plane’s pilot tried to turn on the fire extinguishers to extinguish the possible fire in the cargo hold. He then requested support from the Santa Maria Air Control Center, which diverted him to Lajes airport.

An initial inspection of the hold did not confirm that there was a fire, but for safety reasons, the same fire department source said they removed all the cargo from the aircraft yesterday afternoon to find out where the smoke was coming from.

Meanwhile, the passengers were being sent to hotels on Terceira island yesterday.

The information was confirmed to Antena 1 Açores by the Director of the Lajes Civil Airfield, Victor Pereira. As he said, “there was an indication of a fire in the hold. The pilot requested support from the Santa Maria Air Control Center and the plane diverted to Terceira. The aircraft landed safely. The passengers disembarked safely and all the emergency procedures were carried out.”

According to Victor Pereira, the passengers who had passports and visas entered Portugal and were taken to hotels.

The Director of the Civil Aerogare of Lajes explained that, throughout yesterday afternoon, more inspections were made of the aircraft’s hold. He described this procedure: “What usually happens is that the airline will move a new aircraft to Lajes if the one that landed in an emergency doesn’t have the safety conditions to continue the flight to its destination.”

In Antena 1-Açores photos from Asas dos Açores-Facebook

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