On Saturday morning at the Chinese airport Xiaoshan, the Tupolev Tu-204-100C with the registration RA-64032 caught fire shortly after the pushback. According to official information, the Aviastar crew was able to leave the cargo plane unharmed, but the Tu-204 burned down.

Aviastar wanted to operate a cargo flight from Xiaoshan to Novosibirsk under flight number 4B6534. While the crew was preparing the machine for take-off and the pushback process was being initiated, a fire broke out. This quickly affected the entire machine and despite rapid intervention by the fire brigade, the Tu-204 could not be saved from being completely burned out.

The Chinese authorities have confirmed that the crew was able to save themselves in time and is doing well. “On January 8, 2022 at 4:36 am, Aviastar flight 4B6534 was at Gate 204 of Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport and was scheduled to fly to Novosibirks, Russia. An open fire broke out in the cabin before the aircraft was ready for departure. The crew immediately initiated emergency measures and called the fire brigade. The eight crew members on board were evacuated. Upon receiving the report, the CAAC East China Regional Administration immediately opened a secondary accident investigation. The inspectors from the Zhejiang Regulatory Bureau arrived at the scene of the accident as quickly as possible and the administration set up a task force to investigate the incident, ”said the CAAC East China Regional Administration.

According to unconfirmed information, there were 204 tons of cargo and 100 tons of unspecified fuel on board the Tu-19,5-20C, which was 26 years old at the time of the accident. The RA-64032 is operated by the Russian Aviastar, but was also in the People's Republic of China due to a wet lease order for Cainiao. The accident investigations will show exactly what the cause of the fire was.

The following YouTube video shows some recordings of the deletion work: