7700 squawk and hold

[mickjoebill]

According to flight Radar app, AFR454 Air France B773, CDG to Sao Paulo has been orbiting Norget-le- Rotrou (east of Le Mans) at a steady 20000 feet for last 15 minutes at between 260 to 400 knots. since approx 23:50 GMT
It has squawked 7700 so popped up on the Flight Radar app (a great app!):}

I guess it is dumping fuel? If so why not do it over the channel?
If not dumping fuel but trying to sort out a tech issue why is the typical tight holding pattern adopted, surely this puts crew under a high work load?

It is now descending and heading back to CDG, not unusual.

Mickjoebill

[mad_jock]

there is button you can press which does the hold for you on alot of FMC's which then drives the auto pilot to do it for you.

Going into the hold is quite standard to work out whats going on.

It may or may not be dumping even if it does the fuel disipates in 3000 ft so from 20000 nothing will hit the ground.

And 7700 will be when they decided to not continue and ATC will have told them to change to that so all sectors can see them just as you did.

really nothing special to be honest

[dwshimoda]

As Mad Jock says, squawking 7700 makes you pop on every radar controller's screen in the area, regardless of what altitude / FL's they are controlling - so everyone has a "heads up"

Not sure about the B777, but the B757 has a "hold now" feature on the FMC so you can just set a hold up anywhere - rather than increasing the work load, it massively reduces the work load (but still needs monitoring carefully) while you troubleshoot / QRH / decide a course of action.

Paris to Brazil will be a lot of fuel - if it's non urgent then it may be worth dumping to reduce the landing weight to avoid an over-weight landing inspection. If it's critical, just get it down.

Again, as Mad Jock says, nothing too special and practiced regularly in the sim.

[Lancelot37]

It may or may not be dumping even if it does the fuel disipates in 3000 ft so from 20000 nothing will hit the ground.
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I thought that matter cannot be destroyed. Surely it must go somewhere?

[AndoniP]

From another website:

Kerosene evaporates rapidly in the atmosphere and very little typically survives in liquid form to reach the Earth's surface. The exact evaporative characteristics of dumped fuel depends on a number of factors like the altitude at which it was released, the atmospheric temperature, and the dumping pressure. Kerosene dumped at high altitude on a warm day tends to evaporate fastest.