It's been a hard year for fans and operators of the Boeing 747 aircraft as COVID-19 has made the aircraft model essentially obsolete.
An incident at an aviation storage and scrapyard facility in Spain on Monday night (NZ time) is likely to add salt to the wound.
The Firefighters Consortium of the Province of Castellón in Spain (SIAB) has confirmed fire had broken out onboard a 747 at a storage facility, sending smoke billowing into the sky.
Dramatic phone video shows authorities racing to the aircraft as black smoke pours out of the aircraft fuselage. The fire appeared to be located just behind the cockpit.
Aircraft G-CIVD, or 'City Of Coventry' which it was named, was one of the first Boeing 747s to be farewelled by British Airways this year after nearly 26 years of service and had been sent to Spain to be dismantled.
Photos released by SIAB reveal the extent of the damage onboard and it's clear that even if this aircraft wasn't destined for the scrapyard before the fire, it certainly would have been after, even if there was no pandemic.
No one was injured in the blaze and an investigation has been launched.
