Posted on 07/27/2008 7:03:09 PM PDT by steve86
I think that was an oxygen generator cartridge, which is not the same thing. One or more caught fire, possibly because the cap over the "firing" pin was not installed, as it should have been for transport. When those things "go off" they chemically generate oxygen, but also get hot. The flight was ValueJet 592.
I’ve never been on a 747.
Also they are designed with relief/burst valves that fail at a lower pressure than the tank itself. Tanks are usually secured, so there is little chance that a valve could have been sheared off (which would turn an unsecured bottle into a jet powered missle.)
And most pressurized bottles these days (especially ones used in aviation) are filament wound Kevlar or Spectra (same materials used in bulletproof vests) not steal or aluminum.
A non-metallic tank explosive failure would split the tank, not shoot metal fragments out to cut through the aircraft’s skin, which would have been required to create such a large hole.
A tank rupture might over-pressurize the baggage compartment, causing some minor damage to the structure, but I doubt it would result in that kind of localized hole. I also suspect that there are relief/burst valves in various places of the baggage compartment, that would fail before the skin would. If all of these valves are intact and there isn’t evidence of a sheared tank valve launching the tank through the skin, then logic dictates that this was an explosive device.
In the absence of a fuel, Oxygen isn’t going to explode per se as it is an oxidizer and mixing with the air of the baggage compartment would just increase the Oxygen partial pressure.
Sounds like B.S. to me. I’m surprised they are using steel cylinders still.
Safety investigators say an exploding oxygen bottle was the cause of the hole in the plane.
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