Air Force officer saves airliner with fuel leak

[boardpig]

Not sure if its in the right place but,

More Nonsense from SMH.

A US Air Force officer says he had to video a fuel leak in the wing of the airliner he was on before a stewardess would believe him.

Staff Sergeant Bartek Bachleda has been hailed a hero after his keen eye and patient persistence 35,000 feet above the ground saved 300 passengers on board a flight from Chicago to Japan last week.

"I noticed the leak on the left side of the aircraft right behind the wing earlier during take-off," said Sergeant Bachleda.

His first appeal to the flight attendant was met with ambivalence and the young sergeant didn't want to be rude, he told Air Force investigators.

"Ma'am it's an emergency," he said on his second approach after videoing the leak and identifying himself as an Air Force sergeant.

"She was completely serious and was no longer handing out drinks," Sergeant Bachleda said.

"I told her you need to inform your captain before we go oceanic."

The aircraft's captain came to inspect the footage, which explained why the plane was losing 2700 kilograms of fuel each hour.

The captain said the flight would be diverted back to Chicago, but then changed it to San Francisco so passengers could catch the only flight to Narita airport.

"When we got off the airplane everyone was thanking us," Sergeant Bachleda said.

The captain told Sergeant Bachleda they would never have made it to Japan if he hadn't raised the alarm.

smh.com.au May 18.

I especially like the part .."The captain told Sergeant Bachleda they would never have made it to Japan if he hadn't raised the alarm"

good grief....

[preset]

From a newspaper report :

A US Air Force officer says he had to video a fuel leak in the wing of the airliner he was on before a stewardess would believe him.
Staff Sergeant Bartek Bachleda has been hailed a hero after his keen eye and patient persistence 35,000 feet above the ground saved 300 passengers on board a flight from Chicago to Japan last week.
"I noticed the leak on the left side of the aircraft right behind the wing earlier during take-off," said Sergeant Bachleda.
His first appeal to the flight attendant was met with ambivalence and the young sergeant didn't want to be rude, he told Air Force investigators.
"Ma'am it's an emergency," he said on his second approach after videoing the leak and identifying himself as an Air Force sergeant.
"She was completely serious and was no longer handing out drinks," Sergeant Bachleda said.
"I told her you need to inform your captain before we go oceanic."
The aircraft's captain came to inspect the footage, which explained why the plane was losing 2700 kilograms of fuel each hour.
The captain said the flight would be diverted back to Chicago, but then changed it to San Francisco so passengers could catch the only flight to Narita airport.
"When we got off the airplane everyone was thanking us," Sergeant Bachleda said.
The captain told Sergeant Bachleda they would never have made it to Japan if he hadn't raised the alarm.

Nicely done :D

I feel sure the crew would have figured out at some point they were burning more fuel than normal & made the appropriate decision. :ok:

[Aussie]

Clearly the PNF was sleeping... :eek::ok:

[YoDawg]

Yes, complete and utter "nonsense": a S/Sgt. is not a real officer.

[Gumby]

"Yes, complete and utter "nonsense": a S/Sgt. is not a real officer."

Yes, that's right! He works for a living!!:ok:

Gumby

Former USMC Sgt
Retired Naval Aviator

[OFSO]

Don't be so sure. One time flying Republic, I drew a stew's attention to the fact the leading edge slats on the DC-9 hadn't retracted completely on the port wing. "Oh, they all do that" she answered.

Yeah, right.

[atakacs]

Wouldn't such a leakage (about 1 liter / sec) be reported by the fuel monitoring systems ?!

[singpilot]

Unless the 'fuel monitoring system' was glancing at the 'fuel remaining at destination' and making notes about what it was supposed to be and comparing it to the flight plan fuel used, it would not stand out.

The problem was not in the cockpit yet, the problem was strolling the aisles handing out drinks. She had the responsibility to pass along the report.

Same as the Buffalo Colgan F/A that did not pass along the SLF's report of sparks and flames from the landing gear on takeoff.

Both of these F/A's should be relagated to asking their customers if they'd like fries with that burger....

[rick65]

From: Airman spots aircraft fuel leak at 35,000 feet (http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123149266)

I like the part: "Sergeant Bachleda said the captain and the crew were trying to figure out how the aircraft was losing 6,000 pounds of fuel an hour"

So did the flight crew think that passengers were drinking it?

BTW: the airline was United.

Lets not forget the Air Transit A-330 in route to Europe which developed a fuel leak from inproper maintence. When the systems notified the pilots of the fuel unbalance they thought that the systems was at error.

They ran out of fuel and that A-330 became a glider at 35000' and 170 miles from an energency dead stick landing in the Azores.

[Plastic Bug]

Sparks from the landing gear?

WTF?

PB

[autoair]

Sparks from the landing gear?
See here:
http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/374030-q400-bombardier-loses-wheel-landing.html

[aseanaero]

Years ago I was sitting near the front door of a United Airlines B727 in Chicago, when they started taxiing out I buzzed the stewardess and said I think there's a problem with the front door not sealing correctly as the amount of engine noise coming in wasn't right, way too loud when sitting up the front of the aircraft.

She ignored me but a few minutes later we returned back to the terminal and a technician arrived at the airbridge and got to work on the fuselage with a hammer and some special 'duct tape' and ten minutes later we were on our way again.

This was the second aircraft I had boarded that day to fly to Houston , the first one had about 10% of the seats full and I said to the guy in the aisle across from me "we won't be going anywhere" , sure enough the captain announced we had a technical problem (engines not started yet) and we got off the plane and waited for the next departure announcement.

A few hours later the departure lounge was overflowing with passengers (now late afternoon) and one guy was complaining that he had a reserved ticket and how come he didn't have a seat.

The response from the stressed out counter staff was "I'm sorry sir, the flight is overbooked"

Pax "But I MUST get to Houston tonight"

Counter staff in a drawly accent "Weell siiir , I suggest you fly ANOTHER airline"

Amen I thought !

[Brian Abraham]

A far more reasonable account of the incident courtesy of AVweb.

USAF Refueler Spots Airliner Fuel Leak

Most passengers on an airliner never even look out the window, but about 300 people on a commercial flight bound for Japan are lucky that U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Bartek Bachleda, who works with the 909th Air Refueling Squadron, was paying attention. Shortly after takeoff from Chicago, Bachleda noticed what appeared to be a plume of fuel leaking from the left wing. He told a flight attendant about the apparent leak, but at first got an unconcerned response. Then he told her it was an emergency, and showed her the video he had shot from his seat. "She was completely serious and was no longer handing out drinks," he said. "I told her you need to inform your captain before we go oceanic." The captain came into the cabin to check out the leak and said the cockpit crew had been aware that fuel seemed to be burning too quickly. He diverted the flight to San Francisco, where most passengers were able to catch another flight to Japan.

Bachleda and a coworker were asked to stay aboard while the passengers were deplaned. They waited for the arrival of investigators and officials, and participated in the debriefing about the situation. "When we got off the airplane everyone was thanking us," said the sergeant. The two airmen were put up in a hotel overnight and flew to Japan the next morning. The airline bumped them up to first class, the Air Force said.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m56/babraham227/f-2.jpg