Originally Posted by
flynerd
The molecules in that fuel are already billions of years old.
The
compounds in fuel can degrade rather quickly unless stored in ideal circumstances, due to oxidation or the action of the various organisms that can feed upon them. Anybody who has tried to start a lawnmower after it has been stored with fuel in it over winter has experienced that. There is a whole industry that makes chemical additives to combat this problem, and from my experience the success rate is not exactly 100%. The problem for Boeing is that a success rate of 99% would not be good enough, only a few planes having issues with fuel after storage would be a bad thing. After all, they only crashed two of them after thousands of flight hours; the rules are different for aircraft than lawnmowers and yachts.