17 Die in Libya Plane Crash

excerpt from the story:

"....Libyan television, monitored in Cairo, reported the plane was flying from Tripoli to the oil refinery when its engines had a ``technical fault'' at a height of 2,000 feet.....

Link to story:

http://www.newsday.com/ap/rnmpin0l.htm

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 14, 2000

Answers

Most probable cause of both engines quiting at once is fuel contamination.

-- Earl (earl.shuholm@worldnet.att.net), January 14, 2000.

They are experiencing a contaminated fuel crisis in Australia.

Here's the link to the thread:

5000 planes grounded contaminated fuel

http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002HWw

Do you think Europe may be having contaminated fuel problems also? This is the second Swiss based plane to crash this week.

Here's the link to the first crash story:

Update on Swissair crash:plane inexplicable turned right instead of left.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_598000/598795.stm

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 14, 2000.

"technical fault" is the new way to say "Y2K problem"

-- (bernie@refdan.org), January 14, 2000.

Im just curious,Is the fuel contamination problem a refinery problem?That is are the refineries putting out a bad mix???

-- J (jax@borg.com), January 14, 2000.

Isn't Jet A the same thing a Kerosine?

-- Johnny (jljtm@bellsouth.net), January 14, 2000.

Kerosene?

-- Johnny (jljtm@bellsouth.net), January 14, 2000.

J

Yes, the Australian fuel contamination is a refinery problem; Mobil's, to be precise. Causing millions of dollars worth of aggravation for airports as well as other businesses. link

And, an excerpt from an article this morning:

"The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the body charged with investigating the fuel crisis, said yesterday it could not discount the possibility that light plane crashes in the past two years had been caused by contaminated fuel."

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), January 14, 2000.

sorry I'm contributing to "Carl's Disaster News", but this is for "johnny":

Jet A and Jet A-1 (1950's -present) are the two fuels used by the commercial airlines and both fuels have a 100 oF (Min.) flash point temperature for safety reasons. Jet A has a freeze point of -40 oF whereas Jet A-1 has a freeze point of -53 oF. For this reason Jet A being more available and therefore more widely used. The commercial fuels in the US are not required to have the anti-static additive and generally do not have the additive.

Link to above

==============

...jet fuel formulation contains more than 95 percent kerosene. Is kerosene a pure chemical? Below is part of an MSDS for deodorized kerosene. In place of a chemical formula, there's "MIXTURE OF PETROLEUM HYDROCARBONS" (below). This label indicates that kerosene is a mixture, not a pure chemical. Petroleum fuels, including kerosene and gasoline as well as jet fuel, are complex mixtures of organic chemicals called hydrocarbons. Link to above

So "jet fuel" is not just kerosene, but kerosene is the base of most of it, there are other additives for specific types of engines for aid in starting, anti-static and corrosion protection.

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), January 14, 2000.

Thanks Plonk!

-- Johnny (jljtm@bellsouth.net), January 14, 2000.

Hey plonk!,

Most succinct and informative post in days. Thanks.

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.com), January 14, 2000.

Update on avgas crisis in Australia.

Excerpt:

"CASA was alerted early in 1998 to problems with the fuel pumps of Piper Chieftain aircraft by the managing director of Schutt Aviation, Mr Stan van der Weils.

But Mr Toller said tests undertaken at the time showed the problem was different to the present contamination scare.

He said CASA had specifically asked the Australian Transport Safety Bureau to look into all suggestions of fuel contamination in the past, but he was confident the current crisis stemmed from a change by Mobil to its refining process in November."

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), January 16, 2000.