Originally Posted by
Bell_ringer
You just take that little handheld fire cylinder and wave it about a bit. Problem sorted
Possibly why some have regulated the presence of a suitable fire crew. But that costs money unfortunately and nothing ruins the profitability of an organisation than wasting money on unnecessary safety precautions.
If you have to have the presence of a suitable fire crew, then you have just shut down a huge amount of helicopter operations. we have just become aeroplanes that have rotors, stuck operating from airports.
Even if you have a pilot at the controls and the thing catches fire, what are you going to do? Take off with a burning helicopter, or hop out and wave that little hand held fire extinguisher around until it runs out, then watch the thing burn.... Considering a 30,000ltr fuel tanker only needs a couple of 9kg bottles while they are refuelling a petrol station, and that somehow makes them "safe", with NO fire crew around, and lots of idiots driving cars and motorbikes around them, i don't think that hot refuelling a helicopter is any more dangerous...
while we have all heard of helicopters going for a fly by themselves, even if it is because the pilot got out with the rotor at 100%!!!
how many of you guys can recall a JetA1 fuelled machine catching fire while hot refuelling?