Fuel leak on United Airlines flight goes unnoticed by crew

The plane was still on the ground, as shown in the video.
Um, looks a little concerning to me if you watch the video embedded in the link?
What went wrong and how what are the chances of that sparking off?

“Sit down, it’s normal,” a flight attendant yelled at Rachel Brumfield after her husband Mike alerted the crew to the deluge pouring from Flight 170’s wing, which is shown in the video Brumfield uploaded.
Brumfield claimed United Airlines quickly changed their tune when they realized the seriousness of the situation and invited the couple into the cockpit for a glass of champagne, where they were asked to “go easy” on the airline on social media.

Link

a reply to: D8Tee
A saying we had when I was doing my Apprenticeship as a tinbasher at the Red Rat..."United we fly,United we fall"..

Really wasn't that huge a deal. It was coming out of the dump valve. We used to have it happen, especially with external fuel tanks. Quite a few times if would stop on its own. It looked a lot worse than it was.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Glad you could put it into perspective, Zaph.

The part that interested me most was the impromptu invitation to the cockpit for a complementary glass of champagne, only to find out it was basically a bribe to get them to refrain from sharing experience on social media.

Personally I hate flying united and I must concur that their service absolutely sucks.

a reply to: ColdWisdom

I don't blame them really. I've been watching this get blown out of proportion all over social media. About the only place that it hasn't been is an aircraft maintenance group I'm part of. From reading it on Facebook you'd think they almost crashed because of it.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Although, one can make the argument that even if it wasn't a serious danger, the flight attendant could have at least given the passenger the benefit of the doubt and say "thank you for bringing that to our attention, I will immediately notify the captain and the ground crew."

You know, as opposed to just saying "It's normal."

Well it may be normal but to the layman it is a concern. Customer service 101, you address any and all the customer's concerns.

Am I wrong?

Sounds like this is more of a customer service problem, which has become all too typical of United lately.

a reply to: ColdWisdom

It's a customer service/neophyte issue. Yes, the flight attendant could and should have handled it a lot better than she did.

The person filming also made it out to be far worse than it was, because they didn't know better.

a reply to: Zaphod58

How can a person make flammable aviation fuel poring out of the wing, valve or not, and on to the runway be any worse than it is?

Obviously flammable fuel, or anything else for that matter coming out of the aircraft before take off is going to be a concern for the people and passengers on board.

I don't know anything about the health and safety laws that govern air travel but i imagine JP-40 fuel pouring out an aircraft and on to the runway/tarmac is a concern.

Invited to the cockpit for a glass of champagne... as if that's where all the booze is kept

a reply to: andy06shake

It's Jet-A, not JP-4. And if you read this on social media they were about to takeoff and were in imminent danger of crashing in flames and all dying horribly.

Jet fuel dumped on the ramp is a concern, but not nearly as much as in an enclosed space like a hangar. It's a pain in the ass to clean up, but other than that, it's really not that bad.

Wait a minute... in the era when folks are subject to strict regulatory concerns for the proper disposal of petroleum products...

A video capture of an active spill of jet fuel from the wing of the plane they were paying passengers on.. is somehow turned around as routine, and the passenger has blown a situation out of context..



SMH.. and kudos to the citizen who spoke up and captured the video...

If this is to be considered normal, or occurs from time to time... the folks who build/own/maintain that aircraft, need to face the same potential fines & penalties as the person at home who has failed in properly handling used oil during routine maintenance of their minivan...

Just sayin...

a reply to: JacKatMtn

There is a big difference. Airport ramps, like where this aircraft was, are concrete, and there is almost no chance of it leaking into ground water or soil, unlike changing oil in your driveway. The fines are applied if disposal of the cleanup material isn't done properly.

It isn't routine, but it's not as huge a concern as it's being made out to be.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
There is a big difference. Airport ramps, like where this aircraft was, are concrete, and there is almost no chance of it leaking into ground water or soil, unlike changing oil in your driveway.

Yes, contamination of the surrounding area would be my concern and not the unlikelihood of it all spontaneously combusting. However, airports must be pretty used to spillages of all sorts and if you look at the puddle it's not that much anyway.

There is a a danger that this is being over-exaggerated, but then it is being reported by RT.com so my personal expectation threshold is being met by the tone and the material.

a reply to: paraphi

We used to have a spill every time an S-3 would come in. If you pumped over 18 psi, it vented and dumped all over the ramp. As soon as they parked we'd go pick up a few boxes of absorb pads to have handy.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Personally i imagine i would have been rather apprehensive regarding any journey on a plane that's ether leaking or dumping fuel.

How is the stuff cleaned up, what do they use?

a reply to: andy06shake

Absorbant pads, that are similar to dry sponges and cat litter. You use the pads to cleanup the worst of it, then the kitty litter for the rest.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Another big Thank You for giving us needed info on a topic! I really do appreciate your aviation thread contributions.

Yeah. Not a big deal, except that it was heading right for that storm water drain. They need to plug that up and get the giant tampons out.

I haven't seen that kind of ground dumping on a civilian aircraft though. I've seen my military aircraft vent/dump like that, but we knew it was coming. Seeing that out of an airliner, I would likely make a big deal out of it too, as in, I'd make sure that the cockpit knew about it. Then let them handle it.

a reply to: cosmania

I've seen it once or twice. I'd make a big deal of it, by letting the crew know as well. But if you see this on social media, they were lined up on the runway, about to take off, and were minutes or seconds away from death, because it was dumping fuel.

originally posted by: D8Tee
The plane was still on the ground, as shown in the video.
Um, looks a little concerning to me if you watch the video embedded in the link?
What went wrong and how what are the chances of that sparking off?

“Sit down, it’s normal,” a flight attendant yelled at Rachel Brumfield after her husband Mike alerted the crew to the deluge pouring from Flight 170’s wing, which is shown in the video Brumfield uploaded.
Brumfield claimed United Airlines quickly changed their tune when they realized the seriousness of the situation and invited the couple into the cockpit for a glass of champagne, where they were asked to “go easy” on the airline on social media.

Link

What are they doing with alcohol in the cockpit? And fuel spilling out of the tanks?