On Sunday, a Boeing 777 from Houston (Texas) to Amsterdam made an emergency landing in Chicago due to the misbehavior of an “unruly passenger”, Flightradar24 reported on Twitter. Before landing, however, the plane had to dump fuel. Such an operation looks spectacular, but it can also raise many questions. Why do pilots decide to waste fuel worth even several hundred thousand zlotys? And what happens to fuel dropped from an airplane at high altitude?
Why do airplanes dump fuel?
It is worth explaining at the beginning that the operation called emergency fuel jettison or fuel dumping is performed only before an unplanned landing away from the destination airport and also not in all aircraft (but more on that in a moment). It usually takes place before an emergency landing caused by a technical fault or the inability to control unruly passengers on board. And of course, no airline cares about wasting fuel, nor is it mandated by law to dump fuel. The problem lies in the design of the aircraft.
The machines are designed so that their structure can withstand the weight of the aircraft, crew and passengers, luggage and fuel remaining in the tanks. This so-called maximum landing weight (MTOW or Maximum Landing Weight), which, for example, for the largest passenger plane in the world (Airbus A380-800) is 386,000. kg. However, the same aircraft can take off with a maximum take-off weight (MTOM or Maximum Take-off Weight) of 560,000. kg. To make up for that difference, you just have to dump the fuel.
This is done through special nozzles usually mounted on the ends of two fairings on the wings on both sides of the fuselage (fuel tanks are located inside the wings). If the pilot had not dumped excess fuel before landing, many planes would have ended up with landing gear damage and an aircraft accident.
Not every plane can dump fuel. Sometimes he has to smoke them
However, fuel dump systems are not fitted to all aircraft. They are especially needed in machines whose maximum take-off and landing weights differ significantly, i.e. primarily large wide-body aircraft, because they allow you to get rid of huge amounts of fuel relatively quickly. In small planes (e.g. the popular Boeing 737) the difference between the maximum take-off and landing weight is much smaller, and the machine burns excess fuel by making, for example, a few extra circles around the airport. Unfortunately, this takes (often valuable) time and releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Of course, in some situations, planes equipped with appropriate drop nozzles cannot dispose of fuel (e.g. when flying very low over the Earth). Drops can take place over predetermined areas, which are often designated near airports and at a sufficiently high altitude. Then the fuel disperses over a large area in the form of a mist and evaporates, not reaching the Earth’s surface in liquid form.
Source: Gazeta
Mabel is a talented author and journalist with a passion for all things technology. As an experienced writer for the 247 News Agency, she has established a reputation for her in-depth reporting and expert analysis on the latest developments in the tech industry.
