Ed and Winco,
I have not read the final report covering the incident involving XV235, but it was my understanding that the Captain and crew acted the way they did because fuel was spraying from a coupling "like water from a hose pipe with a fingure over the end" into the bomb bay. This was a repeat of an incident on the ground on 15th Oct, and this was the first AAR flight since that incident. The fault on the ground uncovered other leaks in the system which could have been active in flight on 5th Nov. QinetiQ stated in their 2006 report that one of the problems was that infight conditions can not aways be replicated on the ground. In flight could be worse. Also, it is worth remembering that the Coroner stated that the fire on XV230 was fed from a feed line, not a refuel line. So whilst disconnecting from the tanker may have solved the "hose pipe" problem, there was no way of knowing what other damage had been done.
Ed, I can not believe that the crew would not have raised an IR had they been aware of all the facts. I draw your attention to the two incidents mentioned by Nig, 8th Nov 2006 and 8th Dec 2006. This was fuel in the bomb bay following AAR. By the way Nig, I have no idea why these IR were not mentioned by the BOI. I have asked the same question myself.
DV
Last edited by Distant Voice; 13th Aug 2008 at 16:40.