General Chat

I watched on Y**Tube recently a Boeing with multiple engine failure shortly after take off.The crew informed the airport of the emergency seeking permission to land.
The pilot dumped 53 tons of fuel before making a text book landing. Is the dumping of the fuel legal ?

It evaporates, David.

Yes. It lessens the risk of the plane catching fire when it lands.

The alternative is to endlessly circling until it's burnt off.
With 'multiple engine failures', there'd be a risk that it would crash before that happened.

Needs must and a burning plane might well cause a great deal more pollution jettisoned fuel, not to mention the lives it would take.

Also the aircraft just after takeoff would be too heavy to land safely. Airliner max takeoff weight is usually significantly more than the landing weight.

Happens more often than you think David.

I was curious. The aircraft's intended destination was Shanghai but 20 20 minutes out of he port then the starboard engines failed. By then they had flwn over many miles of fields. The jettisoned fuel appeared to be coming out of the end of the wing. 53 tons is a lot of fuel to dump on fields. The crew didn't inform the passengers until the Boeing was almost ready to land.

They'll do it over fields or water as said it evaporates and is MUCH safer than trying to land at that stage which is basically impossible.

Off topic, there was a crew of three in the cockpit, the pilot, a co pilot and one other.
The instrumentation was dazzling.
So how on the 11/9/2001 a drop out Arab pilot who had never before flown a Boeing could capture one in flight and fly it with skill into the WTC beats me.

He might not have been aiming at that building at all.

Skilled navigators. It used to be a three-year course .... not sure what they do now, but flying hours are key, so, come on, David, the clue is in one word you used - Arab PILOT.

Let's see.....um..."playing at home" on a simulator it's not the movies he knew what he was doing!

if I recall correctly one of them WAS taking flying lessons......and for some reason wasn't interested in learning the landing part!!i

That's my recollection too, Bobtanian. I have Florida in mind ... but I could be wrong.