I've been away for the last two weeks, so i was unaware of the popularity this video had suddently gotten (it's apparently been posted on bulletins boards all over the web). It's starting to wear off now i suppose, but i assume some of you are still interessed in what's actually taking place on the video. There's alot of assuming, and allthough some is right, alot is also wrong.
First of all, there are no Pax on board the aircraft. We were three people in the cockpit (me, and an additional two) and two people outside (one of which filmed the clip). All of us are maintenance crew.
What is shown on the clip is what is known as an "wet run". The engine had just been installed (replacing an engine that was due for maintenance), and this is the first startup of the engine after a long storage period. Flames like this on wet runs are actually quite usual (or so i've heard), just not this big.
What happens during a wet run is that the engine burns out any residual oil inside the engine that was left there during the storage period. It also burns a certain amount of fuel because the engines usually ignite slower at first startups after storage. The thing that happened to us was that we didn't get any ignition on the first try, thus we filled the engine up with quite an amount of fuel. Before a second try, you're supposed to dryblow the engine with the starter to get the fuel out. That's where we got lazy and didn't do our job properly. On our second attempt, we poured fuel into the engine once again and when it finally ignited we got a result worthy of rememberance.
Some of you might find it unbelivable, but there was no damage to neither engine nor flaps after the incident. Normal on-installation test procedures were taken on the engine, and the plane left the airport with Pax on board the next day.
If anyone have any additional questions, you can reach me on
[email protected]
Ps: The fact that it was filmed was a pure co-incident. We had no intentions on making any flame at all.