[BITList] BA B777 Heathrow

[John Feltham]

A view from another List....



BA B777 Heathrow

So we have had a form of verdict (whitewash ?) on the "engine failure"  
on the 777 at Heathrow.

So it was caused by fuel icing - really ?,  the 777 is one of the most  
sophisticated failsafe aircraft flying we are led to believe,   
personally (being an ex sooty & continued on demob to work on, fly  
behind & operate with piston & gas turbine engines) I cannot believe  
that the engines suffered from fuel icing,  UNLESS ! as was thought at  
the time & since on sites such as Prune & BA's "secret" site that the  
fuel level was so low in the tanks the engines quite simply failed to  
power up because there was just no fuel in the tanks, only icy water &  
fuel mix,  there was talk that the high altitude over Siberia caused  
the fuel to ice, surely they mean the water in the fuel could have  
turned to ice ?????  but they have oil fuel heaters so why ? plenty of  
warning devices & even hot air ducting to warm up the fuel (info from  
RR who make the cowlings & ducting etc !) so contaminated fuel, no fuel.

I guess us in the semi know must draw our own conclusions rather than  
listen to the so called crap that is pushed out to the public, I am  
continually being told (by an Easy Jet pilot friend) that they fly on  
such tight margins of fuel that they just cannot sit in a hold in the  
UK or overseas airports because they don't have the reserves, somewhat  
worrying.

So there you are , hope this generates some discussion, guess the  
"real" reason will never be published to the public, also oddly the  
Captain & Co don't seem to be working for BA as crew anymore - why ?,  
another one to ponder.

And another......



the general public have been whitewashed.

I related a story three years ago about a trip I did to Kazakstan. I  
was lucky because I was not the first engineer to fly this trip and I  
was warned about the state of the fuel and to watch that I got the  
correct uplift as the Eastern block is very prone to selling either  
watered down fuel or delivering a short uplift. A busy engineer can  
let the bowser driver do the refuel while he gets on with transit  
inspection. The first engineer to do the trip refused two bowsers  
because they failed water checks and were contaminated with other  
efluent the third bowser was OK just, but was so old it looked like a  
derelict rust bucket from the second world war. An engineer that has  
other things on his mind can easily miss two or three hundred litres  
shortfall on the uplift. you have to remember that kerosine is very  
handy to keep heaters working in a cold country where the serfs are  
kept on low money so I reckon there is a thriving black market on the  
go.

There is always some water present in fuel in an atomised state which  
will go through the system with no problem the danger is not carrying  
out fuel water drains on a regular basis, if this is not carried out,  
over a prolonged period the water settles in the bottom of the tanks  
and in hot climates can be delivered to the engine in a very poor fuel/ 
water mix ie more water than fuel and cause the engines to cut. It  
also has to be remembered that the bigger the aircraft and the bigger  
the uplift the easier it is to skim the load.

So because of our rigouress water drain checks I would discount frozen  
water and deffinitely frozen fuel. Those engines cut for one reason  
only, Fuel starvation. I would love to read the accident report  
particularly the part about when the low fuel warning came on, This is  
an amber light on the fuel guages which illuminates warning the pilots  
that its time to look for somewhere to land. Remember Red means Panic,  
Amber means wake up and do something but you do have a bit of time.  
There are cross checks between the computors and the guages at all  
times during the flight and water in the system does give an early  
warning by making the fuel guages very erattic and difficult to read  
even on the ground.

All hearsay and no corroberation I know but I do like to put in my two  
penneth worth now and again and I am deffinitely sure that the powers  
that be keep us in the dark and like mushrooms feed us on SH1T sorry  
Excretia.







ooroo

If you don't hear the knock of opportunity - build a door.

Anon.