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After Engine Blew, Deciding to Fly On 'As Far as We Can'
Wall Street Journal ^ | September 23, 2006 | scott mccartney

Posted on 09/23/2006 5:43:49 AM PDT by eartotheground

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To: _Jim
What you're failing to take into account is that the pilot did not know the state of his aircraft.  This was not a simple flame-out.  The engine burst into flames and smoldered down.  For all the air crew knew, a piece of the fan could have flown out the side of the cowling in a way they couldn't have seen and damaged the underside of the wing.  They continued to fly, not knowing the state of their airframe.

It proved right, but at the time it was the wrong decision.

Of course, I could very well be wrong but lets not sit around and pretend that everything was okee dokee and that highly trained flight crews never make the wrong call.

61 posted on 09/23/2006 8:14:57 AM PDT by Psycho_Bunny
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To: liberty_lvr
These people are key board-warriors of the highest degree.
We're seeing MORE and MORE of that lately; I see it as "idiocy on the rise" as "morons become more vocal and unashamed to exhibit their ignorance in the face of fact and reasoned response".

I think it marks the decline and fall of civilization and the rise of an illiterate generation; we have had it too easy for many year now, and that is manifesting itself now in the intellectual laziness, here on the I-net even.

62 posted on 09/23/2006 8:15:12 AM PDT by _Jim (Highly recommended book on the Kennedy assassination - Posner: "Case Closed")
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To: free_at_jsl.com
My recollection is that the fuel was dispensed in liters instead of gallons which would leave them with about 1/4 of the required fuel.

From the article - clearly a case of "not seeing the memo." The book I read gives a fuller accounting. and the skill of the flyers is just astounding. Can you imagine being in that plane and NO engine noise roar?

___________________________________

The flight crew had never been trained how to perform the drip calculations. To be safe they re-ran the numbers three times to be absolutely, positively sure the refuelers hadn't made any mistakes;each time using 1.77 pounds/liter as the specific gravity factor. This was the factor written on the refueler's slip and used on all of the other planes in Air Canada's fleet. The factor the refuelers and the crew should have used on the brand new, all-metric 767 was .8 kg/liter of kerosene.

63 posted on 09/23/2006 8:16:11 AM PDT by don-o (Proudly posting without reading the thread since 1998. (stolen from one cool dude))
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To: HIDEK6

I LOVED my '57 Chevvy, but it was a "gift" from my father, and I had to give it up when I enlisted in '62. It was always titled to his construction company, and I left it became just another company car. It got "rode hard and put up wet", and was junked before I got out three years later.


64 posted on 09/23/2006 8:18:15 AM PDT by MainFrame65
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To: MainFrame65; All

According to the link in post fifteen, the aircraft was fitted with a replacement engine. On its next flight, it was on the way to Singapore when the replacement engine blew. They continued the flight for another eleven hours and landed safely.

BA = Ballsy Airline


65 posted on 09/23/2006 8:25:09 AM PDT by gcruse (http://gcruse.typepad.com)
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To: Baynative

Or to imagine the corporate execs who said "Jolly good show."


66 posted on 09/23/2006 8:25:26 AM PDT by xkaydet65
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To: Psycho_Bunny
I think this says it all regarding your naivety on this subject: "The engine burst into flames and smoldered down."

Surpise: engines use combustion (and combustable materials, like oil and oil products) to achieve useful work. Sometimes a turbine spins down and the combustion takes place OUTSIDE the engine (ever seen a car backfire?) as the air/mixture moves from the enclosed turmine area into the area just behind the engine.

BTW, the 'engine' itself did not 'burst into flames'; this is a creation those with vivid imaginations and too much 'cartoon' watching generally make.

Okay, I'm outa here, willfully deferring to the multitude of engineers and scientists around the world who daily practice their discipline without resorting to sorcery, incantations, ouiji boards, or touchy-feely self-help groups to perform their jobs ...

67 posted on 09/23/2006 8:28:04 AM PDT by _Jim (Highly recommended book on the Kennedy assassination - Posner: "Case Closed")
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To: _Jim
I think it marks the decline and fall of civilization and the rise of an illiterate generation; we have had it too easy for many year now, and that is manifesting itself now in the intellectual laziness, here on the I-net even.

You're exactly right! I can't think of another means of communications where it's truer that:

1. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing", and

2. "You can't have a battle of wits with an unarmed person!"

68 posted on 09/23/2006 8:28:56 AM PDT by Real Cynic No More (The only thing standing between us and complete victory over the evildoers is POLITICS!)
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To: don-o
If as your article says, they used 1.77 pounds per liter instead of 0.8 kilograms per liter, then their calculations would have been accurate to less than 0.4%. This would not have been a problem for them. I'm pretty sure that they must have substituted pounds for kilograms and used the 0.8 number instead of the 1.77 number. This would account for the shortfall. Aside from this minor technical error, it's a very good article.

JSL
69 posted on 09/23/2006 8:33:30 AM PDT by free_at_jsl.com
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To: RGSpincich
The story behind the story..."Any time you set up a system where safety and profit are in direct competition, you're heading for trouble"

It would have cost them $300,000 to make an emergency landing.
.

70 posted on 09/23/2006 8:36:53 AM PDT by mugs99 (Don't take life too seriously, you won't get out alive.)
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To: Psycho_Bunny; ErnBatavia
"Fuel dump."

I'm sure the residents of LA would appreciate the smog produced by an unnecceary fuel dump.

71 posted on 09/23/2006 8:38:07 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative
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To: eartotheground
When your airliner is made by the same company that built the B-17, the B-29, the B-47 and the B-52, you know a lot of aviation engineering experience at dealing with in-flight structural emergencies went into it's design.

That said, it is pretty cheeky to blow an engine on take off and then fly an additional 5,000 miles before deciding to land. I wonder what the mental state of the passengers was like.

On a related note: just how many bombers has Airbus designed and built, anyway?
72 posted on 09/23/2006 8:38:20 AM PDT by Captain Rhino ( Dollars spent in India help a friend; dollars spent in China arm an enemy.)
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To: southernnorthcarolina

LOL!!


73 posted on 09/23/2006 8:41:30 AM PDT by Cuttnhorse
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To: RGSpincich

"Flying is just a fad... It'll never last"

A line from an old PATCO Controller I work with at in Springfield Ohio.


74 posted on 09/23/2006 8:46:10 AM PDT by amakua
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To: Paleo Conservative

I've always wondered why they do that as opposed to just a straight, linear route.


75 posted on 09/23/2006 8:47:47 AM PDT by RockinRight (She rocks my world, and I rock her world.)
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To: free_at_jsl.com
Maybe it should be 1.77 pounds per gallon?

Whatever. They were light on fuel at two refuelings; conked out at 30,000 feet and those piolts got it on the ground with no serious injury and minor damage to the plane.

76 posted on 09/23/2006 8:50:26 AM PDT by don-o (Proudly posting without reading the thread since 1998. (stolen from one cool dude))
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To: cpdiii
Commercial Air Craft quite happily fly across the Atlantic every day on two engines.

Yes, but they call them 767's

77 posted on 09/23/2006 8:56:49 AM PDT by JRjr (hMMM?)
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To: RockinRight
I've always wondered why they do that as opposed to just a straight, linear route.

The straight linear route requires tunneling. The Earth is a spheriod. The great circle route is the shortest possible route along the surface of the Earth between two points. If you take a piece of string pull it firmly an place the ends on the origin and destination on a globe, the string will trace a great circle path.

78 posted on 09/23/2006 9:04:57 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative
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To: Paleo Conservative

OK, that makes sense.


79 posted on 09/23/2006 9:06:40 AM PDT by RockinRight (She rocks my world, and I rock her world.)
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To: eartotheground

Heck, you always have enough engine to get you to the crash site.

As I recall, the Douglas DC3 was tested by flying with one engine over the Rockies. I'll bet the 747 could fly, although not easily, with one engine. He had two spares to work with. Some people pay to go bungee jumping or swim with sharks. The pilot was living on the edge and decided to take the passengers along with him.


80 posted on 09/23/2006 9:13:50 AM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission
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