Hi Mariner9,
So you are a Jet fuel "expert". Excellent.
If your job is Jet fuel compliance then this suggests that fuel quality is important although I have no knowledge of what parameters in the fuel may be of greatest concern and why. Maybe you could enlighten us.
What is the most common cause of non compliance?
What causes this non compliance?
Why is this deemed a concern?
Incidentally what happens to fuel that doesn't meet spec?
I suggest that you missed my point.
I did not intend to convey that the fuel in the subject aircraft was substandard in some way (the AAIB appear to have eliminated this by stating that the fuel was "in spec") but merely pointed out that ACCEPTABLE "quality" appears to have a wide range.
I certainly didn't suggest that the fuel was "so bad" that it wouldn't burn, for the reason you pointed out (would have been determined during take off/climb) but since Cal value = heat from fuel = Thrust, a lower cal value will give you less "bang for your buck".
HOWEVER, this wide range of acceptable quality MAY.... in some yet to be determined way..... have been implicated in the chain of events that occurred to BA038.
SOMETHING caused this incident.
As I stated I suspect we are talking about STANDARDS / SPECIFICATION /PROCEDURE boundaries in some way, otherwise the cause would have been determined by now.
Last edited by snanceki; 5th June 2008 at 05:39.