744 Question
 

Flew recently from SFO to LHR as SLF, in a fairly ancient United 744. (Ancient enough not to have individual screens at the peasant seats)

At FL 380, OAT -65ºC (I think), something that probably turned out to be water started gushing from the overhead bins, on both sides of the aircraft (outboard seats), around row 23 (just aft of the wing-root leading edge).

Cabin crew (when eventually they deigned to arrive) were not particularly bothered. It was dark, and they didn't turn the cabin lights on. They made a perfunctory check of the bin contents. I assume they thought it was just condensation. Anyway, they didn't offer to reseat anyone, despite a few seats being available, and despite several people being quite wet. Finding nothing suspicious, they retired to wherever it is they hibernate, explaining that 'the captain knew all about it'.

My question is, for all you 744 jocks - is this kind of thing a common occurrence?

PS Mods - please feel free to relocate this somewhere you might feel more comfortable with.

I've experienced condensation many times on many aircraft types. It's not unique to B744s (geriatric or not).

Water from overhead lockers...
 

A few years ago somewhere in the East water started coming from the overhead lockers,
and the guy seated ahead of me demanded to be re-seated (in business of course).
The stewardess would not do this.
Later she told me that some passengers place a loosely closed
water bottle in the locker above so that water will leak as the
aircraft climbs. Apparently this is a well known trick.
Still I was not re-seated either.

Not in my experience on any aircraft type.

airsound,
I haven't noticed that to any great extent; only a little drip and, of course, sometimes, visible mist jetting from the ventilation ducts.

esa-aardvark,
Thanks for the tip; must try that one day ;)

Yes it happens when in humid climates, especially if the water seperators are getting a bit old and in need of a clean. Could of also been a spillage in the upper deck galley! :eek:
Just because there is no in seat IFE doesn't mean the a/c is old.

Happens on lots of aircraft. Condensation is the most obvious cause. On some aircraft configs on really wet and windy days rain can blow in and remain in some cabin crevices after the door has shut.

IMO it takes a lot of water to deem moving passengers as necassary but if there were spare seats then they are free to move. Passengers don't normally ask to move after take off any other time. As for hibernating..... that will be in the galley or crew rest. With the lights down and passengers sleeping, the last thing people want is the crew doing a jig in the cabin. It sounds like you don't particularly like crew if i'm being honest.

Some of the potable water system runs overhead the passenger cabin. Occasionally if you get a leak you can get water coming from overhead but it usually pours out in the galley areas on our aircraft.

Seen something similar on several occasions over the years.

Upper deck galley leak was the offending problem.

I would not expect this at the above mentioned phase of flight, most commonly on pushback or rotation. We had an early flight out of Miami in a 742 once a week, middle of the summer extremely high humidity, we would taxi the aircraft from remote parking to the gate leave the APU running and install external A/C to augment the APU air and obtain a a decent cabin temp. We had several gate returns due to passengers flipping out on taxi out.

The level of humidity at altitude is about 0%, possibly trapped condensation that drains after level off before being reabsorbed into the dry air, I can not think of any other possible answer.

Ive had it snow on me on younger ac types! Especially departing hot n humid destnations! Many airlines dont use the apu anymore due to fuel burn. Therefore the ground conditioning carts are used that (imo) add more moisture as they are rather poor at coping with the large mass of ducting on big a/c.
When the packs are used again after start, or take off, that moisture , that should have been removed by the air cycle machine, freezes in the ducts and blows out down the side wall vents. On older aircraft ive seen the walls get washed, saves a cleaning bill i suppose.

Boarding a 737 a couple of weeks back, noticed a heavy drip from under the starboard wing, a/c had just been refueled. Brought it to the attention of an FA, who didn't seem the least worried. Spoke to the Captain after the flight, he opined that it was condensation, and not uncommon in the circumstances - just arrived in cold England from a hot location.

I recall something similar on a B707 almost 40 years ago, well into the cruise, possibly starting descent. it was assumed at the time to be condensation.

I don't recall anything similar on short haul, or on more recent long haul types.

The thankful thing today is that as smoking is not allowed anymore the condensation is not thick brown sludge as I often saw dripping onto the First class passengers on the Tri-Star!

This caused by the build up of nicotine much as you used to see on the ceilings of pubs pre smoking ban.

Sorry to be pedantic vctenderness but the yellow stain is 'tobacco tar', as nicotine is almost colourless and a considerably smaller component by volume of a cigarette. It is the tar that kills people, nicotine is the addictive part of tobacco. When you see air filters clogged and walls coated with this tar, it helps make the point for not smoking.

On thread: have only ever seen condensation, never a waterfall. The story of a partly sealed bottle rings true but I have not seen it. If it's common, I can well understand that CC would think any waterfall was a ruse.

The engineers used the nicotine stains as an indication of hull pressure leaks, ie , loose rivets, damaged seals etc., when inspecting the airframe.

Sounds like the drain from the galley at the back of the upper deck is either leaking or the sink has overflowed.

Thanks for an illuminating set of replies, folks.

A couple of points. As I said, we were at FL380, and the OAT was quite cold, at about -65ºC. We were somewhere near 4 hours into an 8-hour flight (there was a favourable jetstream: the schedule was 10hrs 15mins, and we arrived in about 8hrs 20mins flying time)

The water came through on both sides of the ac at the same time - so presumably not stuff leaking in bins (intentional or otherwise).

Looking at a cutaway diagram, these seats were almost exactly below the upper galley. So a leak/blockage there may well be the cause. If that was the case, the cabin crew's reaction seems even more cavalier than I thought, since the liquid might well have been something other than clean water.

easyflyerNot so, I have absolutely no problem with CC in general - just these particular ones and their lack of care for their pax.

spannersatcxI accept that in general, but I've been flying United between SFO and LHR, and various places in between, for about 20 years, and I can't remember the last time I saw a long-haul ac without in-seat IFE. So I reckon, with other clues as well, that this was a fairly long in the tooth ac.

Anyway, thanks again for all the suggestions.

The only thing older than a United 747 is a United flight attendant. ;)

My experience in general with the CC of any US airline is that, especially on LH, they don't give a damn - even in First. Hardly surprising, I suppose, when you look at how the airlines have treated them.