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Why can't the French dump fuel?



 
 
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Old September 30th 05, 07:48 AM
Friedrich Ostertag
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B. Jensen wrote:
You sound like an EXCELLENT advocate for having the ability to dump
fuel too!!!


Why are you in such a hurry to dump fuel? Doing that starts to limit
your time / options available for trouble shooting the problem and
diverting to another airport.

The first two memory items on any emergency checklist a

1. FLY THE AIRPLANE
2. DON'T HURRY

Dumping fuel violates #2. Besides, IF you really need to land in a
hurry, the A320 can do that at any weight. These guys took off for NY
with a full load of passengers. That means that they had a lot of fuel
onboard and a heavy takeoff weight. To land at that weight would have
required a much higher landing speed. Since they had the hydraulics
(green system) turned off to the nosewheel steering system, (per
emergency checklist) this also reduced their braking ability because
this same hydraulic system also controls the #1 engine reverse, and
normal braking, i.e. antiskid assisted braking.


To me it's perfectly clear, that there was no need for the JetBlue A320
to dump fuel. Burning it was a much better option. But I can still
imagine emergencies, where one cannot afford to fly around for several
hours, yet still a reduced landing weight, lower than the allowable
maximum, and less fuel onboard (the fireball thing ..) would be
desireable. Say some sort of fire or smoke developing onboard, for
example, like the swissair accident, maybe in combination with some
structural damage. I would expect that dumping fuel just before the
landing would greatly reduce the risk of a big fireball.

However, the question is of course again, how likely is an event like
this, where fuel dumping even below max landing weight would be an
advantage and what is the cost and weight for the device.

regards,
Friedrich

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