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Old 6th Jun 2018, 00:57
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tonytales
 
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Ft. Collins, Colorado USA
Age: 90
Posts: 216
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Years before, I saw a Crash Crewman swing a full size fire axe at a pax window. It hit, bounced off and throw him on his back on the wing. Windows are tough.
L1011 had a heavier than usual skin due to its construction but still, that would be the only way to release pressure. .
I do see in the report the engines were shutdown but it was six minutes after landing. With the toxic gasses formed by burning cabin material I am sure it was very bad inside. We had a fire in the FESC on an L1011 at KEWR when I was Maintenance Manager. Fortunately it occurred as the aircraft approached the gate. The FESC overboard fan was discharging heavy black smoke and tendrils of burnt insulation. Power did not fail until after engine shutdown and PAX door opening so everyone got off although the last were in a big hurry as, after loss of power, the fumes from the FESC were now coming up to the main cabin. One of my maintenance foreman spent a night in the hospital due to short exposure to the fumes as he ran in, opened the cockpit overhead hatch and ran out again and collapsed in the loading bridge. I had to borrow a breathing pack from the PONYA fire crew to enter the aircraft. The fire had been extinguished by a potable water line bursting from the heat. I suspect six minutes plus the time in the air reduced the capacity of anyone inside to open a door.
We ignited a small sample of the shroud that covered the toilet tank as a test and the fumes drove us out of the maintenance office. This is nit to say the L1011 had worse interior material than others. They are all the same and thy use the same stuff. It did however lack any manual mechanical means of dumping cabin pressure in the absence of electrical power.
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