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As a pilot, former airplane owner (reluctantly sold when I moved to Arabia) and (very) frequent flyer on commercial aircraft I follow the various incidents and accidents with a pretty keen interest.
I have a brother who is a wide-body long-haul pilot with a major airline. He does a lot of trips across the Pacific including Beijing and Shanghai. Got another note from him today about the BA 777 crash at Heathrow (first ever hull loss of a B-777). The investigators have apparently ruled out any electrical problem, and confirmed that there was no empty tank fuel starvation. The investigation is now focussed on possible fuel contamination in the fuel load picked up in Beijing. My brother also mentioned that flights have been flying at lower the usual altitude in recent weeks because the tropopause is lower than normal and temperatures at altitude are lower than usual, so this may be a factor if the fuel gelled or any heavier-than-fuel contaminants froze.
My brother's employer has been sampling every fuel load they take on in China since the day following the accident. Way too early to determine if this is what actually happened. But hooooo-boy! Let's not even think about the potential implications of this one on international trade at such a fragile time...
I have a brother who is a wide-body long-haul pilot with a major airline. He does a lot of trips across the Pacific including Beijing and Shanghai. Got another note from him today about the BA 777 crash at Heathrow (first ever hull loss of a B-777). The investigators have apparently ruled out any electrical problem, and confirmed that there was no empty tank fuel starvation. The investigation is now focussed on possible fuel contamination in the fuel load picked up in Beijing. My brother also mentioned that flights have been flying at lower the usual altitude in recent weeks because the tropopause is lower than normal and temperatures at altitude are lower than usual, so this may be a factor if the fuel gelled or any heavier-than-fuel contaminants froze.
My brother's employer has been sampling every fuel load they take on in China since the day following the accident. Way too early to determine if this is what actually happened. But hooooo-boy! Let's not even think about the potential implications of this one on international trade at such a fragile time...