Fuel leak on United Airlines flight goes unnoticed by crew

originally posted by: D8Tee
a reply to: Blackfinger

Methyl Ethyl Ketone?
How about Tricloroethane, used to wash my hand in that stuff if they were greasy lol.

Oh yes Trichloroethane 111, worked with it more than I wish I had, nasty stuff with a scary MSDS.

a reply to: Blackfinger

I used that to clean detector bottles on explosives detectors. The crap on the flightline laughed at it.

a reply to: charlyv

Oh I know. I get near a ramp and just take a few deep breaths. I love the smell of JP-8.

All you guys complaining about Skydrol are a bunch of sissies. I've bathed in it, drunk it and had it in my eyes. nothing wrong with it, its like mothers milk.

Seriously though, have you ever made the mistake of working with it, forgetting to thoroughly wash your hands then go for a pee? Jesus is that a great sensation! For those that dont know, getting skydrol on sensitive body areas or in your eyes is akin to having fresh chilli juice put on, it burns that badly. And who can forget that smell? Sweet metallic I call it with a hint of pepper.

a reply to: mtnshredder
Aviation is just so full of nasty compounds, and to think it used to be much worse before they got rid of some of the more nasty ones. You know you are in for a fun day when the MSDS and side of the container manage to put all the nasty pictogram's on it. You know, dead trees, bio-hazard symbol, skull and cross bones, etc, etc.

a reply to: Blackfinger
No mate I dont recall, that was before my time. But I know the kind of thing you mean, had a few of our birds like that. Remember the days of the JT-9 and if you had a particularly bad oil or hydraulic leak the best way to troubleshoot was to tow it over, open the cowls and then hit it with a few buckets of MEK? You went off to smoko then came back and started troubleshooting. MEK did such a wonderful job of cleaning it up, pity about the bit where it probably shortens your life though.

a reply to: thebozeian

I was doing a rotor head check when a blade fold line let go. A mist of hydraulic fluid was ignited by the engine in a big flash. Luckily for me I had my goggles on. When I took them off it was like I had sunburn on my face except for where the goggles were. I looked like a raccoon for a few days.

Zap you were right about the S-3. They never could get the high level shut off valves to work right.

Anybody ever see a Learjet parked on a slight slope when the crew forgets to close the cross feed valve? Over time fuel will flow into the low side and you end up with the tip tank on the ground. We used to have a mattress that we kept on hand in case it started to happen and the aircraft was locked up.

The media has a nasty habit of trying to make anything aviation related look dangerous. Look at what happens when an airliner loses an engine. It is a big media event. it doesn't matter that the plane could have continued it's route safely and that it is just a precaution that it lands at the closest airport.

This is the fuel overflow valve, what happened is the fueler over-fueled the aircraft, and as designed it dumps the excess through the wingtip (it's different from the dedicated fuel dump valve for reducing weight for landing) from a special port (it's a triangle shaped opening in the wing. Here's an example from on the ground, it is seriously not a big deal and happens guaranteed once a day somewhere in the world.




The procedure is the fire department comes out, they make sure there is no chance of fire, then depending on local regulations either the fire fighters clean it up or the ground service does. You have many types of fuel cleaning materials and equip, which range from kitty litter like substances to giant snake looking things that are basically a giant cotton swab that absorb the fuel off the ground. It's then swept up and disposed of properly.

a reply to: thebozeian
Skydrol was always good slipping around the stuff under the flaps on a Jumbo.
Same bird Boze apparently a framie pushed his hand through the rear pressure bulkhead due to corrosion..MEK was bad but worse if you smoked..At Kingsford kitty litter was king.

a reply to: Blackfinger
Yes we really should change the name for lunch break to something other than smoko, hardly anyone actually smokes any more.

We had a series of A-380's 12-18 months ago that were having a Kevlar flex line in the aft cargo bilge that was failing due to internal damage from of all things static discharges and flexing from shock. The flex line is between two titanium rigid pipes and when they let go it typically snaps the retainer brackets as well. I had a colleague one day at the ramp prepping a flight to LAX and he heard a muffled boom when the cargo door was opening. Next thing you know and Skydrol starts dripping out the bilge water drains. It took only about 8 seconds to dump that entire system into the area. When they pulled up the floorboards it was apparently indescribable, there was hydraulic fluid as far as the eye could see. It took nearly two days to clean it up as it went forward under the lower crew rest and shredded and contaminated the insulation blankets. So glad I dodged a bullet on that one, it was someone else's problem!

In regards to refuelers overfilling tanks. At what point did they forget to read what the fuel order actually is? Seriously they have one job and it aint that hard on a 737. I have never seen one dump fuel like that, even on a very hot day. Whenever I have seen a fuel spill its almost always because the guy wasn't watching and had the fuel distribution all wrong and/or was doing it manually. You dial in the number and depending on the aircraft type you open the valves to the tanks you want it in or in some newer aircraft you just put it to auto and depress the dead man. When the fuel order is reached it automatically stops, simple.

a reply to: thebozeian

Someone posted a pic the other day of an Air Force POL guy. He was sitting in his fuel truck, with the deadman switch in his hand, running through the door, with an open book on the steering wheel.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Probably the same guy who overpressurised the Kc135 tanks a few years ago..Damn that looked nasty to a sheety..

a reply to: Blackfinger

That was a pressurization test, not fuel related. They left one of the vent plugs in and pressurized. The C-141 in Nashville, and the E-8 over the Middle East were fuel system over pressures though.

Fuel system:











Pressure test failure:

a reply to: Zaphod58

Those middle pics, of the interior, um, are those inside the fuel tanks?

a reply to: D8Tee

Yes. The tank over pressured and it blew holes in the wing skin, and cracked the ribs inside the wing.

a reply to: Zaphod58

What about vacuum disasters on airplanes? I've seen a waterhauler at the rig collapse his tank from steamcleaning it without proper venting. He was not a happy camper. Similar to what happens to this railcar in the 19 second video.

a reply to: D8Tee

That would only happen when you defuel the aircraft, and with all the various fuel tanks, you'd have to deliberately do it.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Yes I have seen them doing that too, but I guess if you spend 12hrs a day, every day you get to know what you are doing. I cant say I have seen the professional refuelers make a mistake anyway, in fact with smaller aircraft like 737's we dont even tell them what to put in they already know, you just pick up the fuel receipt.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Mmmm, nice! Blew the rib feet clean off the wing plank. That aircraft never flew again I take it.

Wasn't that 135 pressurisation test accident due to the guy running it using a home made gauges set, and it didn't get regular calibration? I seem to remember that being brought up in a human factors re currency course a couple of years back.

a reply to: thebozeian

They flew it back to the Depot from the ME, where it happened. They never said that they scrapped it, but the list of total airframes suddenly showed one fewer.