DHL Cargo Plane Bursts Into Flames on LAX Runway Near Sepulveda Tunnel

Flames tore through the left side of a DHL cargo plane on the southernmost runways at Los Angeles International Airport, with video of the blaze broadcast during the 11 p.m. news. No injuries were reported, and as of early Thursday, investigators had not disclosed where on the aircraft the fire started or what caused it.

The dramatic footage, first shown by NBC Los Angeles, showed the DHL freighter sitting on the runways west of the Sepulveda Tunnel as flames poured from its left side on Wednesday night. The outlet described the story as developing, noting that neither the fire's starting point nor its cause had been determined at the time of publication.

A Runway Built Over a Tunnel

The location itself is a quirk of LAX infrastructure. The Sepulveda Tunnel, completed in 1953, runs beneath the airport's two southern runways, carrying State Route 1 directly under the taxiways where the DHL plane was seen ablaze, according to background compiled from Wikipedia. At 1,909 feet long, it was reportedly the first highway tunnel in the country built underneath an active airport runway, giving Wednesday night's fire an unusually dense backdrop of vehicle and air traffic stacked on top of one another.

Fire crews on LAX's airfield fall under Los Angeles Fire Department Station 80, an on-site Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting unit equipped with 3,000-gallon water and foam crash rigs, per the LAFD Foundation. Those firefighters go through specialized ARFF certification specifically to operate the heavy vehicles built for runway emergencies. Under Federal Aviation Administration Part 139 rules, certificated airports like LAX are required to get rescue and firefighting crews to any point on an active runway within three minutes of an alarm, according to Aero Crew News, a standard that also requires airports to run regular live-fire drills.

DHL's Busy LAX Footprint

LAX is one of DHL Aviation's four primary U.S. gateway hubs, alongside airports in Chicago, New York and Miami, according to Business Insider, even though the carrier's main U.S. superhub sits at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. That regular freight presence explains why a DHL freighter was on LAX's south airfield in the first place, even as the specific circumstances of Wednesday night's fire remain unclear.

Cargo hold fires have drawn increasing regulatory attention industry-wide. FAA records show verified lithium battery incidents involving smoke, fire or extreme heat aboard U.S. aircraft climbed to 89 reported events in 2024, with 12 of those occurring specifically on cargo planes, per data compiled by the ICC Compliance Center. Separately, the FAA's Advisory Circular 120-121 requires cargo carriers to run safety risk assessments on items carried in cargo holds, weighing potential fire hazards against existing suppression capability, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It is not known whether cargo contents played any role in Wednesday's fire.

Not the First LAX Freighter Emergency

LAX's south complex has seen cargo plane emergencies before. In August 2020, a FedEx Boeing 767 suffered a landing gear failure at LAX and slid down the runway on its left side, sparking flames before Station 80 crews extinguished the scene, the LAFD Foundation notes. DHL's fleet has its own history of serious incidents elsewhere: in April 2022, a DHL Aero Expreso Boeing 757 suffered a hydraulic failure after takeoff from Costa Rica, made an emergency landing, skidded off the runway and broke in two, according to FreightWaves. Both crew members on that flight survived without serious injury.

LAX has also logged recent scares involving passenger jets. Just over a year ago, a Delta flight's engine caught fire shortly after takeoff from LAX, forcing the Boeing 767 to return for an emergency landing with flames visible from its left side. As with Wednesday's DHL fire, no injuries were reported in that incident, and the aircraft landed safely with emergency crews already staged on the tarmac.

For now, the DHL fire remains an open case. Neither the point of origin on the aircraft nor the cause of the blaze had been released, and NBC Los Angeles has indicated it will update its reporting as more details emerge.