Jetstar excess Fuel YBBN.
 

On Jan 29 JQ 753 YBBN to Launceston off loaded approx 97 bags as excess fuel was loaded.
Not sure if this was Flight Crew calculation error or Refuller error?

Assume 97 bags at 20 kg = 1,940 kg.
Jet Fuel at 0.8 kg/L means 1,940 x 0.8 = 2,425L approx of excess fuel.

Is it possible for a A320-200 to have excess fuel removed?

Aircraft was fully loaded with passengers as Virgin had cancelled flights to Hobart and YMLT a few hours earlier.

On arrival at YMLT at 2130 passengers were advised by Ground Staff that only 14 bags had travelled on flight.

Needless to say there were now over 100 very unhappy customers,who if they had been advised in Brisbane would have had time to
consider the implications of not having their bag on arrival.
Approx 63 bags were delivered the next day and 34 bags were delivered another day later ie 2 days later.

I wonder what procedures Jetstar are putting in place to prevent this happening again?

Was it a fuel overload, JQ accommodating 20 or 25 Virgin pax at the expense of offloading 97 bags or a bit of both? It's quite possible the fuel had already been loaded before the crew became aware that the ZFW had gone up by 2000kg. It's significantly quicker to offload bags than defuel - assuming of course that defuelling was even available.

Or was it an AC swap, that AC was going somewhere further than intended. Whether in HB and LST req an ALT like ML a lot of factors can lead to this.

A change in ZFW being a daily occurrence around the country. Every now and then someone gets caught out.

Not whilst parked at Brisbane Domestic terminal, no.

The refueller is told how much to load initially and then must wait for the final figure before topping up... so, no, it wont be a Refueller error. Somebody else stuffed up.

If they can refuel an aircraft at the 'domestic' terminal, why couldn't they defuel there (notwithstanding the painful logistics involved in that!).

Normally the engineer (or pilot) preselects the fuel load required. The refueller hits the switch. :ok:

It can be a refueller error, & has happened to me. The correct figure was in the system, and the refueller even confirmed it with me as I went past on the walkround. By the time I got back to the flight deck, we were over by about a tonne - he’d just had some sort of brain failure when setting the preselects, which left us with a MLW issue. Fortunately we were able to go low and fast and just burn off the excess, but that won’t always be a practical option.

Bugger!.. sorry to hear that! I hope you reported him to the company anyway because it's not always that easy to fix and he's bound to do it again to someone less fortunate.

Townsville Refueller, reckons they sell heavy fuel down in Incestown.

While it's theoretically simple to defuel an aircraft, in practical terms it's impossible. Once they fuel goes into the aircraft it belongs to the airline and no fuel company is going to buy it back from the airline. To defuel the airline has to rent an empty fuel truck, defuel into the truck, and then store it there until it can be disposed of. And no one has an empty truck for rent.

Yes imagine something practical like offloading 2500 litres of Jet A1 into the mobile tanker and then putting that fuel into an aircraft owned by the same operator. Better to try to reconcile the Chinese with Taiwan.

Was fuel available in Launceston? Tankering maybe?

Rgds McHale.

Actually, aircraft maintenance bases the world over usually have defuelling facilities for small quantities of Jet-A1. Qantas Jet Base, Sydney, used to have an entire tank farm they could use to defuel, test, recertify and fuel their aircraft for engine runs and similar - so there you go, Qantas (used to) do it all the time. All aircraft boneyards (including the one at Alice) also have defueliing facilities, only since the offloaded fuel is technically theirs now, they on-sell it as clean returns.

And, yes, the fuel companies at Australia's major airports will happily take fuel back if you ask nicely - only don't expect them to (a) do it anywhere near a crowded passenger terminal and (b) pay you for it 'cause its a waste product from then on.

Can usually be used in company aircraft .

Perhaps an issue with an MEL?

If they had the outer wing tanks or centre tank with a fault, they may have had trapped fuel, Both outer tanks would be about 1,400kg of extra weight in fuel which has to be added to the ZFW of the aircraft.

it’s been a few years but last time I tried to get rid of a few tonnes for free at a capital city airport no one was interested. “Call Vioela waste management” was the reply.

What a crack up.
Virgin passengers whinge their bags aren't at their destination vs not departing BN at all.
Fuel is expensive at certain ports - tanker up to max landing weight for the return - here's another X passengers from a cancelled flight - not hard to see why they went overweight.

Maybe you didn't ask nicely then?? :)

(Or maybe they were simply too busy that day. A few tonnes is a pretty big deal)

Not normally possible according to most airline SOPs for the simple reason that, once defuelled, that fuel is classed as 'contaminated' and it is not worth the time, effort or money to do the checks to have it declared 'clean' again. I had a couple of tonnes defuelled from a 757 many years ago in UK and, thanks to some friends in low places' it ran the central heating in the captain's business premises for a couple of years.

Someone from outside of aviation trying to understand how the most regulated industry in the world works.

There was an issue, the bags couldn’t travel. Why does everyone want to be an expert.