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I'm not an expert .. but I think just incase they have to make a crash landing .. that the plane won't explode as bad with a full tank ... this plane was traveling from CA to NY

I was on a flight from Stl to Birmingham Al back in the 70's and the pilot didn't know if our landing gear was down and if it was if it was locked, so they circled the airport and dumped all the fuel, then went in. The runway was 'foamed' and emergency vehicles paralleled us down the runway. There were a lot of prayers said. Luckily it was a malfunctioning light.

That happened to me once too, except there was no foam. New Haven to Washington, DC. I learned a new euphemism that say, the fire trucks paralleling us down the runway, spouts aimed at us, were "administrative procedures." We too had a malfunctioning landing gear light - the gear was fine and we landed normally. But, I was near to getting airsick for the first and only time, between the stress of the situation and the fact we were circling for hours in choppy air.