[SES1066]

Next question not answered in story - what was the cause of the leak. Bad maintenance / pre-flight with fuel cap detached or perhaps a physical break in fuel line? Whatever, I agree that the flight crew would not have gone 'feet wet' with that fuel loss.

Standard distance from Chi Town to Tokyo is about 6315 miles while from Chi to SanFran is 1858 miles or about 30% of total. Not knowing fuel capacity but probably no danger till well beyond coastline.

However they would have had an odd flight path. The 'Great Circle' route for Chi to Tokyo goes north over Canada and Alaska before arcing down the Bearing Sea and east of Kamchatka. By the time the pilot called in his destination change they were probably well into west-central Canada.

[yldstrk]

Great work