Posted on 07/12/2014 4:25:25 PM PDT by kristinn
There are reports on Twitter that Delta Flight 469 is due to make an emergency landing at Israel's Ben Gurion airport. Further reports say the plane has around 360 on board and that the plane has been burning off fuel flying in loops off Israel's coast over the Mediterranean Sea.
Over a dozen ambulances waiting for Delta plane to arrive at Ben Gurion Airport within minutes
Wow...glad it got down safely.
That’s the same flight my wife and I were on last March when we visited Israel for a week.
The ‘loops’ are known as holding patterns. The jet is just circling around as it dumps fuel to get down to landing weight.
The Boeing 747-400 Max Landing weight (652,000 lbs) is a good bit less than the Max take-Off weight (875,000 lbs).
Aircraft without provisions for dumping fuel have to circle until they burn enough to get down to Max Landing weight.
Otherwise, things like landing gear, etc. have a good chance of breaking upon landing. Having all that extra fuel in the case of fire in also not a great idea.
What? No fuel dump button? I don’t think so. But I’m not a civilian aviation expert.
My father once lost 2 engines leaving Narita and dumped tens of thousands of gallons into the sea(evaporated) in order to get light enough to land.
If you declare an emergency you dump it fast.
Glad these guys had time to land safely.
My father once lost 2 engines leaving Narita and dumped tens of thousands of gallons into the sea(evaporated) in order to get light enough to land.
If you declare an emergency you dump it fast.
Glad these guys had time to land safely.
That may be the ultimate purpose for dumping fuel, but the most immediate concern is that every international long distance flight which takes off is too heavy to land safely, aside from the fire issue.
Max takeoff weight vs max landing weight structural failure/landing gear collapse on touchdown.
Landing gear trouble after takeoff can lead to disaster so turning back is the prudent choice. A locked wheel can heat the tires to ignition; that happened to a Nationair flight out of Jeddah and all souls were lost.
Good point about a wheel well fire, but the loss of that plane can be credited to third world nationals in the control tower that didn’t even know which plane was in trouble.
Actually it was caused by an under-inflated tire. The investigators uncovered proof that the guy who checked the pressures altered the inspection report because he couldn’t be bothered with putting in more air.
Yes, but if the Saudi air traffic controllers had their act together, there would have been a petty good chance of getting the plane down before the passengers cooked.
A 744 can dump fuel.
Many airliners cannot, for various reasons.
http://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/commercial/airports/faqs/fueldump.pdf
They may have been trying to correct the problem, or holding for some other reason.
Landing overweight is legal if necessary. The 744 could have landed overweight if it had to.
If you have to land overweight, the airplane is taken out of service for a thorough inspection.
http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/articles/qtr_3_07/AERO_Q307_article3.pdf
The 744 can land at max to weight.
Just to be clear, the 744 is not supposed to land at max to weight, but it is capable of it in an emergency.
Boeing doesn't think so.
I already covered that. The 747 is capable of landing at max TO weight, you just aren’t supposed to do it unless necessary.
It would be an overweight landing, which is acceptable in an emergency.
All passenger airliners are capable of taking off, having an immediate dire emergency, and turning right around and landing overweight.
Part of the passenger airliner certification process is the ability to land at max TO weight.
The fuel jettison capability of the 747 and most other airliners is due to a go-around and one engine climb requirement, not due to landing weight.
http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?rgn=div5;node=14%3A1.0.1.3.11#14:1.0.1.3.11.5.185.39
“but the most immediate concern is that every international long distance flight which takes off is too heavy to land safely, aside from the fire issue.
Max takeoff weight vs max landing weight structural failure/landing gear collapse on touchdown.”
That is completely incorrect, of course.
We would have no such flight if that were the case.
My understanding was that a plane needed to land at max TO to get certified, but an overweight landing inspection/repair is required if it happens in service, with the possibility that it may need to be scrapped.
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