Firefighters respond to airport emergency by spraying wrong plane

An Air China plane, left, waits for fire extinguisher at an airport in Fuzhou, East China's Fujian province, Dec 10, 2015. [Photo/Fuzhou Airlines' Weibo]

Imagine you are sitting in a plane and waiting for take-off when suddenly out of the window you see fire engine barreling down the runway and then spraying the plane with foam.

This is exactly what happened when firefighters who were called to put out a fire on a jet sprayed the wrong plane by mistake, according the Beijing News.

On Thursday, Fuzhou Airlines' flight FU6577 reported a fire in Air China's CA 1822's right engine to the control tower at Fuzhou Changle International Airport in Fuzhou city, East China's Fujian province.

Eight fire trucks rushed to the scene within two minutes. But instead of spraying foam at CA1822 that had fire on the right engine, they began dousing FU 6577 with foam, said an Internet user yeshidai.

After realizing their mistake the firefighters turned to the stricken plane, but by then the crew had already extinguished the blaze by switching off the engine.

When Air China asked the airport why it still had dispatched firefighters to its plane, the official Weibo account of Fuzhou Airport replied, "It's the only way to make sure that everything is alright in an emergency situation."

And the Weibo account of Fuzhou Airlines added that the passengers of the Fuzhou Airlines' plane were asked to disembark and the airliner was taken for thorough checks while passengers of the other flights at the airport were provided hotel accommodation after the firefighters' mistake delayed their take-off.

Internet users expressed mixed opinions on the accident.

Some praised the timely and responsible action of the airport, some joked that the passengers and crew members on FU 6577 must have been surprised to it snow in Fuzhou, while others advised that it's time to train the firefighters to know the logos of different airlines.