PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Icing up on the ground in the tropics
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Old 17th Apr 2019, 22:19
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tdracer
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Everett, WA
Age: 68
Posts: 4,413
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There is no comparable to the BA 777 in LHR however, as this was caused by an unfortunate combination of events and design, which caused fuel filters to get blocked by ice.
A minor nit - it wasn't the fuel filters (which have a bypass if blocked), but the fuel/oil heat exchangers that were obstructed by ice enough to prevent the engines from responding to an increased thrust demand. The heat exchanges were re-designed to prevent a recurrence, and newer designs now incorporate a bypass into the heat exchangers that will bypass fuel around the heat exchanger if it becomes obstructed.

Years ago my boss had me investigated an icing damage incident during a 767 flight test. They had been doing a flight test which required a several hour cold-soak at altitude (39k IIRC). When they finished up, they were right over Everett so they threw up the spoilers and rapidly descended to land at Paine Field. It was a warm, relatively humid summer day and although they were never in 'icing' conditions, large amounts of ice formed on the engine inlet then shed doing minor damage to the fan but ruining the acoustic panels in the fan duct. It was interesting - the pilots swore up and down they'd never been in icing conditions so it couldn't have been engine icing - but I talked to several people in the back who had witness the ice forming on the inlet but failed to inform the flight deck...
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