Goelz said that every pilot knows the story of Swissair Flight 111, a Geneva-bound MD-11 out of New York that plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean off Nova Scotia on Sept. 2, 1998. None of the 229 people aboard survived. The crew had called in an emergency but was flying away from an airport so it could dump fuel over water when it crashed.
"Pilots know that when you have a problem that threatens the aircraft and you have to get rid of fuel, you get rid of it fast," he said. "You don't want things like this (contamination) to happen, but the alternative is too dire."
Pardon my French, but this is pure BS. Swiss Air 111 has nothing to do with it. They went to dump fuel because they thought they have successfully choked the fire in the wiring that they thought they disconnected. This is very different. An engine stopped. LAX-PVG is an ETOPS flight. What would they do if the engine stopped over the Aleutians? Ditch it in the ocean to avoid "dire" alternatives?
PS I will give Mr.Goelz the benefit of the doubt, however, because whorenalists, especially from a well-established tabloid like USA Today, could have misquoted him "for drama purposes".