Guvnor
>If you have a serious technical emergency and return to land, is it really sensible landing with a full fuel load? Surely a big ball of flame may well result??<
For someone who purports to know so much about aviation you are remarkably naive. As a mere "systems monitor" I am at a loss as to why you would think/assume that returning with a full fuel load in a "serious technical emergency" should result in a "a big ball of flame"
Every departure brief I give contains words along the lines of "in the event of smoke/fire in the cabin or any fire which does not extinguish, we will return here immediately (weather permitting) and accept the landing mass is X tonnes above the NORMAL limit" This is on an aircraft with no fuel dump and a considerable difference between the max TOM and max landing mass (normal) and could take in excess of 4 hours to burn that fuel off.
What would you do if you had a dump system fitted AND engine fire indications? Perhaps go for a bigger fireball in the air?
As I say your naiveity astounds me.
[ 25 August 2001: Message edited by: Airboeing ]