Airplane fuel leak noticed by passenger

derg

Apparently a "terse" writer
Staff member
Airplane fuel leak noticed by passenger
Published: May 22, 2009 at 3:59 PM

Staff Sgt. Bartek Bachleda of the U.S. Air Force said he was determined to inform crew members after noticing a fuel leak on a flight from Chicago to Japan.

Bachleda, who is part of a air refueling squadron, said when he noticed something leaking from the left side of the Boeing 747-400 jet he was traveling in to Tokyo, he immediately contacted a flight attendant, CNN reported Friday.

"I decided, if the captain doesn't know about this before we go oceanic -- meaning once we fly over the ocean -- and we're leaking this massive amount of fuel, this is going to be a bad day," Bachleda, who is stationed in Japan, said of the recent midair incident.

After Bachleda showed the flight attendant a video he took of the leak, the flight crew was notified and the airplane eventually landed in San Francisco as a precaution.

United Airlines spokesman Jeff Kovick told CNN the flight crew had noticed the fuel leak prior to Bachleda's warning, adding the flight's pilot had no plans to attempt to cross the Pacific Ocean given the fuel situation.
 
Cool....we have the same crazy flight planning system UAL uses.

If their fuel score ends up anything like ours, they probably wouldn't have noticed for a while.
 
Heh, one of the first chute pulls in a cirrus was a passenger that freaked when they saw fuel streaming back from a fuel cap that was not secured right.
 
This Airman happens to be a Boom Operator. So he knows a thing or two about fuel streaming out the back of an airplane.
 
It says deep in there that the crew was well aware of the situation and was already deciding whether to turn back or not.

RD
 
15286673.jpg


Not much chance of 'em splashing into the ocean there. :)
 
Well, if that's a picture of the "leak", the "leak" location is completely coincidental with the Fuel Jettison port. It's hard to tell in the photo, but it there are is a NACA scoop for the fuel surge tank/ venting system there.
 
My bad. Sky News calls that the Sgt.'s picture.

In this age of interconnected virtual tubes and digital cameras in every device, stock footage just doesn't cut it anymore. :)
 
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123149266
5/14/2009 - KADENA AIR BASE, Japan (AFNS) -- Most of us hear stories of Airmen saving lives in combat, but an Airman who saves the lives of more than 300 passengers is definitely a story worth hearing.

A fuel leak on a civilian aircraft caught the attention of Staff Sgt. Bartek Bachleda, 909th Air Refueling Squadron boom operator, during a flight from Chicago to Narita airport, Japan. After alerting the pilots and aircrew, the ranking pilot made the decision to divert the flight to San Francisco.

"I noticed the leak on the left side of the aircraft right behind the wing earlier during take-off," said Sergeant Bachleda.

Sergeant Bachleda continued analyzing the outflow of fuel to be 100 percent sure it was a leak while the plane was reaching cruising altitude. Almost an hour into the flight, he told a stewardess of the possible leak, but was given an unconcerned response.

Sergeant Bachleda then began to capture the possible leak on video. He then got the stewardess' attention by saying, "Ma'am it's an emergency." He identified himself to her and showed her the leak on video.

"She was completely serious and was no longer handing out drinks," he said. "I told her you need to inform your captain before we go oceanic."

The captain came from the cockpit to where Sergeant Bachleda was sitting to see the leak and view the video footage. Sergeant Bachleda said the captain and the crew were trying to figure out how the aircraft was losing 6,000 pounds of fuel an hour and then they knew exactly what was going on.

The captain made a mid-air announcement the flight would be diverted back to Chicago, but then changed it to San Francisco so passengers could catch the only existing flight to Narita airport.

Once the flight arrived in San Francisco, Sergeant Bachleda and a coworker were asked to stay back while the aircraft was deplaned. They waited for the arrival of investigators, the fire chief, and the owner of the airport to explain what went wrong.

"When we got off the airplane everyone was thanking us," said the sergeant.

While conversing with the captain, the sergeant said he was hesitant at first to inform them about the leak, but he knew it was abnormal. The captain said they would have never made it to Japan if it wasn't for him.

The two Airmen were placed in a hotel overnight and flew back to Japan the next morning. The airline company showed their appreciation by seating them first-class.
 
Well, if that's a picture of the "leak", the "leak" location is completely coincidental with the Fuel Jettison port. It's hard to tell in the photo, but it there are is a NACA scoop for the fuel surge tank/ venting system there.

When I first saw this picture, I thought it was just them dumping fuel...

RD
 
Some of my comrads out here are bad mouthing the boom operator. They seem to think that the guy was tootin' his horn to get some attention. It seems to me the moral of the story is if you see something that doesn't look right, at least inquire about it. You might be the only one who's noticed something important.
 
Some of my comrads out here are bad mouthing the boom operator. They seem to think that the guy was tootin' his horn to get some attention. It seems to me the moral of the story is if you see something that doesn't look right, at least inquire about it. You might be the only one who's noticed something important.

Your moral is correct. Others might not have noticed, or thought it "normal" and said nothing, or said nothing because they didn't want to be wrong. I'd venture that this guy would probably know what he was seeing.

Tell your RJ self-loading-baggage comrades to pay attention to their own gear handle. :D
 
15286673.jpg
Not much chance of 'em splashing into the ocean there. :)

Not that I don't believe that the crew didnt see the fuel disappearing much quicker than it should have, but it looks like they were continuing on the flight plan for awhile before deciding to divert.
 
At that point, on a route that long, they were probably running of center tank fuel. The center tank holds about 125,000 lbs of JetA, so even losing 6,000 lbs an hour, they had some time.

Also, the airplane has a lot of weight to lose from what was probably a max gross weight takeoff to get down to landing weight.

I've been trying to think about the systems and what could have caused the fuel coming out, especially at 6,000 lbs/hr (really similar to a dump rate). I can think of a few things that might have caused this without a giant hole in the airplane. As no pictures of a giant hole in the wing have surfaced, it was probably a valve stuck. The fuel system on the 400 is pretty much fully automated, so it will be interesting to find out, if we even hear anything.

I have some time at the school house next month, so I'm sure they'll hear about it, and if I remember, I'll pass it along.
 
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