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Old 9th Sep 2015, 22:56
  #238 (permalink)  
Dairyground
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
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The still photograph in post #3 and the video in #10 both appear to show the main seat of the fire as being on the ground between the port engine and the fuselage. Notice that the fire engines appear to direct their first spaays onto the ground, rather than onto the wing or engine - they are only attacked later. This suggests that whatever emerged from the side of the engine ruptured fuel pipework or penetrated a tank. Since later pictures do not show any obvious outflow of fuel, it seems likely that thw wing tank is intact and the fuel was escaping from pipework downstream from an operating shutoff valve.

Perhaps if the failure had occurred a few seconds later, after V1, the damage would have been less, withe fire extinguishing itself in the air through lack of fuel.
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