Posted on 07/30/2004 3:35:57 PM PDT by aculeus
An investigation is under way into how a British Airways airliner took off from Heathrow Airport trailing smoke and fuel.
Air accident investigators revealed the pilot had to declare an emergency and released most of the plane's fuel over the sea before returning to land.
The incident took place on a Boeing 777 airliner, which had 151 passengers on board, on 10 June.
Investigators probing the failure described it as "serious".
The airline was heading towards Windsor when another pilot waiting to depart noticed the trail of smoke and the smell of aviation fuel.
The British Airways crew believed the plane was leaking fuel and immediately informed air traffic control of emergency.
The plane released 90,000 kilos of fuel to enable it to a safe landing back at Heathrow.
A two-inch door to the fuel tank was later found unscrewed. The screws were found hanging in a small plastic bag.
British Airways says it is co-operating fully with the investigation and that it has undertaken its own inquiry.
A BA spokesperson said: "Safety and security is always our first priority and following our own investigation we immediately put in place a number of procedures to prevent this incident recurring.
'Continue to co-operate'
"We have amended our own fuel tank maintenance procedures and are working with the aircraft manufacturers to ensure that they amend the aircraft maintenance manual accordingly."
The details of the incident have been published in a special bulletin by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB).
"We will continue to co-operate with the full AAIB investigation into this incident which is not yet complete and are committed to ensuring any further recommendations are implemented accordingly," the spokesperson said.
The bulletin says the plane was scheduled to fly to Harare, in Zimbabwe.
Published: 2004/07/30 12:07:50 GMT
© BBC MMIV
The mechanic on duty, Habib Ali Salami, was questioned and sent home.
Is there any standard maintenance procedure that would account for this?
Yes, normal accepted procedure for removing panels during inspection is to place the attaching items(screws, bolts, etc) into small plastic bags with string pulls on them to adjacent area, indicating that "these are the screws for that panel". Some mechanic screwed up, or should I say, did not screw up.
Forgot, this also does not say much about the pilot/pilots preflight inspection of the aircraft either.
HMMMM, leaving a gas cap off. I wonder if my ex is now flying planes.
On edit, she only did that once, I never let her gas up the car again.
Re-edit---She loses a gas cap and I fill the tank for 19 years, guess who the stupid one was?
So wash her favorite expensive sweater in hot water. You'll never do the laundry again. BWHAHAHAHH!
Pilots dont crawl over an aircraft lie they did in the old days, but it does make me wonder if they have a separate inspector to sign off the work, I seriously hope they dont sign off on their own work!
Beg to differ, the Captain himself does not do a pre-flight but a member of the cockpit crew does in fact visually inspect the aircraft before their flight or at least their first flight of the day. Not seeing a white parts bag hanging off the wing is a real no-no. The pre-flight inspection is done by the "engineer/navigator" for three member crews and by the co-pilot or right seator on two crew planes. The FINAL decision that the aircraft is safe to fly is the sole decision of the pilot in command. He/she is the final authority, whether it be a ultralight single engine or a 747.
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