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Old 11th Jan 2016, 04:01
  #56 (permalink)  
Machinbird
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
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Could somebody please explain how is it possible that jet fuel could be 'pumped out of the crater' after such impact ?
I'll try,
The best explanation has to do with the fact that there was very little horizontal velocity at impact and that some wreckage undoubtedly remained in the crater. Being a liquid, the fuel could lodge itself along the earth/snow at the sides of the crater and not be ejected by the rebounding earth and wreckage in the center of the crater. Later, it would drain downward and collect at the bottom. It appears to have been a very small fraction of the fuel load.

I once investigated another crash where the aircraft impacted nose down & wing down with some horizontal velocity. There the fuel load washed the fragmented wreckage out of the crater and distributed it systematically along the horizontal velocity vector.
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