Created Tuesday, Aug 18th 2026 18:54Z, last updated Saturday, Oct 3rd 2026 15:08Z
A China Airlines Boeing 747-400 freighter, registration B-18725 performing flight
CI-5265 from Anchorage,AK (USA) to Taipei (Taiwan) with 4 crew, was climbing out of Anchorage's runway 33 when the crew declared Mayday Mayday reporting an engine #3 (CF6, inboard right) fire. The crew worked the related checklists and shut the engine down. The crew stopped the climb at 9000 feet, dumped fuel and landed safely on Anchorage's runway 07R about 1:50 hours after departure.
The NTSB rated the occurrence an incident and opened an investigation.
The aircraft is still on the ground in Anchorage about 89 hours (3 days 17 hours) after landing.
On Oct 3rd 2026 the NTSB released their preliminary report summarizing the sequence of events:
According to the pilot, after takeoff at about 5,500ft above mean sea level (MSL), there was an audible fire warning and an "ENG FIRE 3" Engine-Indicating and Crew-Alerting System (EICAS) warning indication illuminated. The crew discharged one fire extinguishing bottle and shutdown the No. 3 engine. During the inflight shutdown procedure, electrical AC Bus Tie 3 tripped and electrical AC Bus 3 de-energized, which resulted in the left-hand autopilot disengaging and the loss of multiple instruments on the captain’s side. The crew engaged the Center autopilot and declared Mayday with air traffic control (ATC). ATC vectored the airplane to a holding pattern to jettison fuel prior to landing, but the fuel jettison control system failed. With the No. 3 engine fire warning no longer illuminated following discharge of the fire extinguishing bottle, the airplane remained in a holding pattern to burn enough fuel to be under the overweight landing limits at PANC. The airplane landed uneventfully approximately two hours after takeoff.
A post incident examination of the airplane by maintenance personnel revealed fire damage to a lower section of the left-hand engine cowl and evidence of an undercowl fire on the left-hand side of the engine.
...
A pressurization check of the fuel manifolds with nitrogen gas revealed a crack in the left-hand (inboard) fuel manifold tube, located adjacent to fuel nozzle number 24 at approximately the 9 o’clock position on the engine. The engine was later removed from the airplane and shipped to an engine repair and overhaul facility for further examination.
Related Flight:
CI5265,
China Airlines News
