Kyle Boatright wrote:
What fuel problem would cause a jet to go down *right now*?

TWA800

Gimli Glider? It glided for 10-15 minutes before landing, and a Soviet
airliner probably wouldn't do much worse..

There was a Gimli glider style landing performed by Tupolev Tu-204 (757 lookalike)
performed at night in Siberia after running out of fuel on the way to an alternate.
They were lucky to be flying a latest Tupolev, since the older Tu-154
(one of the involved in yesterday's crash) have no RATs and their hydraulic system
is completely dependent on the engines running (there are three of them plus APU after
all), once they flame out, the -154 becomes uncontrollable and enters agriculture.
Tu-134 on the other hand is old enough not to posesses hydraulic controls at all,
other than a yaw damper, so this shortcoming becomes an advantage in such case.

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