Major Fuel Leak before Take Off at Geneva

[Fbrigade]

The Nouvelair A320 was at holding point 05 before T/O when the TWR reported they can observe a major fuel leak under the right wing.
They call the Airport Fire Brigade to respond and the result is on the link below.
http://www.alphafloor.net/aviation/nouvelair/index.html

The fuel was going under the wing in direction of the running engine :\
Fortunately the Fire Fighters was rapidly at the scene and the foam blanket was put under the a/c at the same time the rescue strairs was deployed and the passengers evacuated. Two disabled passengers were removed by the fire fighters and the paramedics few minutes after.

Lucky day for all involved
No injuries for all involved

A perfect day in fact :D

[LTNman]

How come the cameraman got to the scene faster than the fire service?

[hetfield]

The Nouvelair A320 was at holding point 05 before T/O when the TWR reported they can observe a major fuel leak under the right wing.
They call the Airport Fire Brigade to respond and the result is on the link below.
http://www.alphafloor.net/aviation/nouvelair/index.html

The fuel was going under the wing in direction of the running engine :\
Fortunately the Fire Fighters was rapidly at the scene and the foam blanket was put under the a/c at the same time the rescue strairs was deployed and the passengers evacuated. Two disabled passengers were removed by the fire fighters and the paramedics few minutes after.

Lucky day for all involved
No injuries for all involved

A perfect day in fact :D

Looks like Geneva is a bad place for Nouvelair ......
(Last time it was the landing gear)

[Farrell]

have seen very similar pics to these in the past....can't remember where though

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

If I had a $ for every aircraft I've seen streaming fuel on take-off.........

[Getoutofmygalley]

Just out of interest, does the foam do any damage to the engines? I notice that the foam appears to have been squirted thru the front of the engine and is dripping from the back of the cowling in one of the pics.

Wondering just how costly this sort of incident can be :confused:

[Fbrigade]

Just out of interest, does the foam do any damage to the engines? I notice that the foam appears to have been squirted thru the front of the engine and is dripping from the back of the cowling in one of the pics.
Wondering just how costly this sort of incident can be :confused:

the foam doesn't create any damage to the engine and the a/c.
The best way after such incident is to wash the engine and the a/c.
Because the fuel leak reach the running engine. The firefighter decide to put foam around the engine to protect it by a rapid cool down.
Temperature for a self inflammation of kesone Jet A1 is 38 Celsius :ooh: $
In comparaison the engine external temperature gases at the exhaust could be a lot more. Huge inflammation would be the result :\
Great monitor man on the fire truck :D

The cost is purely replenish foam and water on fire trucks
Thank's to the spotter for the pictures

[hobie]

I must say, a first class set of photo's both in context and quality ... :ok:

[Getoutofmygalley]

Thanks for the reply Fbrigade :)

[Itswindyout]

I know in BSL, that two ground contol vans have spotters installed.

in EGGW there are even more....so the secret is dont be a naughty boy.

In relation to the fuel venting from, what looks like the wing tip expansion holding tank, it would nor normally be so much or so heavy flow....unless......the cross flow pumps were on, and fuel being pumped cross side.....

Windy.

[TightSlot]

Raise a glass to airport fireman everywhere

[sarah737]

.
Temperature for a self inflammation of kesone Jet A1 is 38 Celsius :ooh: $



A bit optimistic FB, this would mean that if you spill a drop on your hand it would start burning... And that all fuel trucks would explode above 38C, wishfull thinking of a fireman????:ok:

[jollyikarus]

Jolly good show, very well dealt with by all. Congratulations!

Cheers,

JI :-)

[suppie]

what a crap all that foam....most probably the leak would hv stopped after the captain shut down the engine...what he should hv done immediately anyhow.
Firebrigade shud hv put sand on and around the fuel...thats how it goes in AMS anyhow

[NG_Kaptain]

The Airbus manual strongly discourages spraying external fire agents into an engine unless absolutely necessary.
excerpt from Airbus FCOM pertaining to a tailpipe fire
"External fire agents can cause severe corrosive damage and should, therefore, only be considered after having applied the following procedure."

[Two's in]

But in all fairness, the Airbus manual is written from the perspective of not having to replace the engine and reducing overall repair costs, and not from the perspective of testing the flame retardant qualities of the SLF's leisure wear...

[320DRIVER]

This looks like a failure of the fuel return logic which should stop fuel from being pumped into the outers when they are full. Switching off the fuel pumps / shutting down the engine would kill that leak presto.

[WorkingHard]

"Firebrigade shud hv put sand on and around the fuel..." A question for you guys that know better than I but would it not be better to put down a proper absorbent material rather than sand which will NOT contain the fluid?

[hobie]

A bit optimistic FB, this would mean that if you spill a drop on your hand it would start burning... And that all fuel trucks would explode above 38C, wishfull thinking of a fireman????

I suspect FB really means Flash Point .....

"Like JET A-1, JET A has a fairly high flash point of min. 38° C"

[stevfire2]

an aviation firefighters job is to prevent fire, extinguish it should it break out, in order to preserve life. the cost of clean-up is not our concern, that is what insurance is for. it is human life that is irreplacable. if some think that an aviation fuel leak can be disregarded as almost trivial, then more fool them!. as for a bucket of sand, ######ks.

[HotDog]

....most probably the leak would hv stopped after the captain shut down the engine...what he should hv done immediately anyhow.
Shutting down the engine would not stop a fuel tank leak. The engine was more than likely shut down before the spraying of foam commenced.

[fmgc]

"the rescue strairs was deployed "

What are rescue stairs?

[Carnage Matey!]

My memory is fuzzy but isn't there a fuel tank vent up that way in the wing. I'm sure I've been taxying around in a 320 venting fuel from round about there and we didn't call it a major fuel leak.

[HotDog]

Like JET A-1, JET A has a fairly high flash point of min. 38° C" Flashpoint is the temperture of fuel at which it produces fumes that can be ignited by an open flame. Jet A in fact has a flashpoint of 49 oC.

[mini]

Firstly, well done to the twr, who knows what may have happened if it wasn't spotted.

Fire crew deserve a clap also, stevfire2 described their ROE's and it would seem they carried out their mission. Period.

As for yer man in AMS and his sand... great to get a laugh in R&N :ok:

As an aside, looking at the pics it would seem that no1 was actually shut down at the time?

[Carnage Matey!]

Firstly, well done to the twr, who knows what may have happened if it wasn't spotted.

They'd have taken off with fuel venting and at some stage it would have stopped.:hmm:

[ZQA297/30]

Thanks Carnage, quite true.
Fuel tank venting is not rare. The reason the vents are out near the wingtip is so that the occasional incident does not result in a fire.
I admit that this one seems to have been a persistent and high flow affair, and if fuel had somehow managed to run down towards the cowling then a response was indicated, but a slug of foam into the internals of a hot engine creates thermal shock as well as corrosion problems.
The vent orifice is designed to run the fuel clear of wing, etc, so I am curious how fuel got on lower wing/cowling.

[admiral ackbar]

Good job by everyone (sand... :mad: ), and some great aviation photography on that link! :D

[Trash Hauler]

It's great to have the fireys get there nice and quick however I am not sure the engine owner will be too impressed with the "foam cool down"

:confused:

[Fbrigade]

"the rescue strairs was deployed "

What are rescue stairs?

Rescue stairs are purely a red mobile stairways comming to respond with the fire trucks in case of a degradation of the situation.
This is probably the best way to preserve the passenger for a rapid disembarking without the slides.
Unfortunately not mandatory at airport according ICAO

[flyboy320]

Great Pictures!

I am wondering, if, let´s say the Wing tanks are full and there is fuel in the center tanks and the center-tank-pumps are switched on while the Mode selector is on manual.....would i have then fuel getting overboard through the spill pipe since the IDG Cooling system is returning fuel from the engines to the outer tanks?

I am new on the Airbus, so just a question!

[avoman]

If the surge tank overflow sensor becomes 'wet' the FLSCU shuts off the IDG cooling fuel flow return to this tank. That is what is supposed to happen anyway.

[Antman]

You can see how abrasive and corrosive the foam is if you look at the first picture of the cowl and the last picture, see how the paint has been stripped
off. Engine and compressor wash followed by a borescope me thinks.

[SLF3]

Was on a triple seven at Houston that had an engine failure (GE90) and the fire crew foamed it. BA said afterwards foaming the engine caused several million dollars worth of damage. I guess it didn't really matter, the engine was trashed anyway.

[Flying Fred]

Great Pictures!
I am wondering, if, let´s say the Wing tanks are full and there is fuel in the center tanks and the center-tank-pumps are switched on while the Mode selector is on manual.....would i have then fuel getting overboard through the spill pipe since the IDG Cooling system is returning fuel from the engines to the outer tanks?
I am new on the Airbus, so just a question!
Well spotted. This is absolutely correct. Several years ago I managed to do just this while operating the centre tank pumps in manual. We had to start up , taxy out and hold for quite a while and I had left the centre tank pumps on while we waited. By the time it was noticed, we had pumped the best part of 600kg fuel out through the wing tank vent in a very similar manner to the A320 in the picture. We had already moved off and the fire services came out to deal with the spillage. Not my finest hour :uhoh:
This, incidentally, is why the centre tank pumps run for only 2 minutes (I think) after startup before switching off.

[spannersatcx]

You can see how abrasive and corrosive the foam is if you look at the first picture of the cowl and the last picture, see how the paint has been stripped
off. Engine and compressor wash followed by a borescope me thinks.

I would suggest that it is just the foam 'sticking' to the cowl rather than stripping the paint off.

[chuks]

I'm no expert but I would often see fuel streaming out of the outside wing as a jet would swing onto the runway for departure. I took that for, perhaps, a flapper valve stuck open on a vent. I think the 727 would do that fairly often.

This one didn't look, to this casual observer, like something that would have been all that dangerous provided the aircraft kept moving forward.

The regional jet I used to fly had a quirk in that if you fully fueled it and then left it to sit under a hot sun it would begin to vent and then develop a powerful, one-sided syphoning action. I was horrified one day to return and find the aircraft tipped to one side with fuel still streaming out and the cheap Nigerian asphalt under the leaking side reduced to a slush of gravel, bitumen and Jet A. What a mess that was, and mostly down to the fuel system not always working exactly as intended. It surely wasn't designed to do that!

I started out in aviation working with 115/145 Avgas, which is like liquid dynamite, easy to ignite and very powerful. Compared to that I had always thought of Jet A as just another sort of diesel fuel, something fairly innocuous.

Then I went to a grill party where someone used Jet A to get the charcoal in the cut-off 55-gallon drum started. Wow! It lights easily and burns hot and fierce so that I had to revise my notion of just how much respect to give that stuff. It is nothing to trifle with.

[spagiola]

How come the cameraman got to the scene faster than the fire service?

There's a favorite photo spot for local spotters right next to the Rwy 5 holding point. So the photographer was probably already there even before the aircraft came.

[Fbrigade]

I would suggest that it is just the foam 'sticking' to the cowl rather than stripping the paint off.

After reading the diiferent post on the site, some more informations

1. The guys evacuated by the paramedics are disabled passengers (2)
2. The foam sprayed on the engine doesn't create any damage to the engine
3. The foam concentrate was sprayed with a mixture of 6% of foam concentrate and 94 % of water. The a/c was washed with fresh water after they was removd from the holding point.
4. The a/c take off from Geneva 4 hours laters direct to Tunisia without any damage created by the response of the fire crew.
5. The Falshpoint of Jet A1 is +38 Celsius according Total docs
6. All passengers are leaving Geneva the same day with a special flight from Nouvelair :hmm: (not the same a/c :) :) )
7. A X-feed problem is probably the cause of the problem(wait and see)
8. The reason why the firefighters lead of foam blanket under the a/c was simply because the a/c was turning back 360° on the holding point and creating a 360 ° circle of fuel leak around.:\
9. The fuel qty lost was 850 kg during the incident
10. The right wing (lower part) was contaminated by the fuel and the wind when the a/c was turning back)
11. The engine cowl was also contaminated and the vapour on the picture was created by the fuel.

A lot more info if available tomorrow

[Nov71]

Nice to get on the spot reporting & updates amidst remote conjecture. Nice pics too.
850Kg Jet A1 vented during taxi is cause for concern for all onboard.
Well done TWR
If foam is so corrosive that it strips paint during the incident, do you think H&S would let even a Firey within 100 metres of the stuff, let alone spray it in strong winds or wade through it? What you see is mainly air & water (foam).
Even if spraying down the intake did wreck the engine, still cheaper than total airframe loss by fire on an active taxiway, methinks; not to forget the pax compensation claims!

Well done to all involved

[Farrell]

Do the crew get informed by the software that there is venting going on?

Or was their first knowledge of it by RT from Tower?

[Chuchichäschtli]

The pilots did report some technical problems on the TWR frequency and asked to taxi back to the stand to have it fixed. This is the reason for the "abnormal" position of the acft on the pics. The PIC did a 180° (not a 360°! mon cher Fbrigade) in the holding bay in order to return to the main apron. But the tower wouldn't let them. I saw pics shot from the tower - unfortunately in such a bad quality that it is not worth showing them here - that are far more impressive. So they asked them to stop and shut down the engines immediately.
So on the flightdeck they must have been aware of something unusual going on...

[chuks]

Foam is made from a mixture of protein and water, I believe. It is a bit smelly, like spoilt meat, but not especially corrosive as far as I know.

The corrosive stuff is the dry powder extinguishant. That makes metal turn into a furry mess, plus it's abrasive. Spray that into an engine and it would need an overhaul for sure.

[doubleu-anker]

Can the outboard part of the wing be seen from the cockpit?? If so then why was the fuel leak not pick up during the pre t/o checks?

In my day we used to confirm the leading edge flap deployment from the selection, instrumentation and visually. Is this not done anymore.

Just a thought.

[The AvgasDinosaur]

Plenty of fully justified praise for fire service response on this thread, how about the response on this one however
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX_yB3mKdUg&NR
Makes you worry just a little bit
The good news is amazingly nobody was killed
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20060710-1&lang=en
Be lucky
David

[FlightDetent]

Wingtip is visible from thle flight deck on 320, but only the formost part. So the leak would not be detectable visually by pilots.

Centre tank pumps turn off 2 minutes after start-up to achieve engine fuel feed segregation for departure (regulatory requirement).

FD.
(the un-real)