So what happened to the aircraft? Has it been removed from service?

Last I heard about the a/c from a ground worker was that it was to sit for 72hours.

I'm not sure where it is now :(

Hydroxyquinoline may be nasty stuff, but it has nothing to do with mercury, so the MAS reference here is a bit of a red herring.

(that is until someone tells us that herrings are red because they have ingested too much mercury.........)

Airbus article - "When Mercury attacks"
 

http://www.airbus.com/pdf/customer/fast19/p20to21.pdf

I think this could be about the aircraft mentioned above, It talks about damage to an Airbus A310.

Seloco - Bit harsh, all chemical spillages during transit on an a/c are valid points on this board, arnt they.

The MAS A330, as far as I know the a/c was a considered a hull loss and believe was broken up.

The bit pertaining to the MAS a/c and this incident which Seloco hasnt thought about and is valid is the safe carriage of hazardous chemicals / goods on a/c. This could of been a very nasty incident with loss of life through ingestion through the skin and secondly that the a/c may be a hull loss.

Seloco,

Hydroxyquinoline "eats" Aluminium in a similla manner to that of Mercury.

Hence the destruction of 9M-MKB.

Mercury has a similar devastating effect on gold - works its way through the grain boundaries and makes it brittle.

When I were a young lab assistant, I used to be the favourite of young married girls who came to me in tears because they had got mercury on their wedding or engagement ring.

Caught in time, a quick burst of a bunsen burner gets the ring up to 296 degrees and removes the mercury. I'm not sure it would work with a whole aeroplane though.

Sorry Chillwinston - I had no intent to criticise, but merely to respond to your post that said:

"Realise its no help to a facinating subject and confirm it was a MAS a/c that was written off due to hull loss concerning the leakage of mercury, think it was A330"

Hydroxywhatsit is undoubtedly vile stuff but it is an organic compound that one might reasonably expect to be nasty, rather than a somewhat bizarre liquid metal like mercury with which one used to play in misguided innocence in one's youth.

And believe me as an all too frequent pax I give great and continuous thought to the many things that might be lurking beneath the floor, and hope that they are indeed properly packaged and contained.

I've also learned through several years of enjoyable pruning that there is rarely such a thing as getting off thread - even the introduction of red herrings as a red herring is fair game, methinks!

Eatern wiseguey,
I didnt understand the other threads, but in reply to yours, the ac was decomtaminated by an external specialist team before being moved to company HQ where it is being subjected to 'whole body Xrays'.
Flybe is perhaps the major structural specialist on the 146 (outside Bae) and there is no chance that the ac will return to service without a proper 'fix'

mercury,

Nasty stuff but requires either prolonged exposure through inhalation (eg old dentists who got poisoned through poor procedures) or ingestion of contaminated food (Japan 1960s)

Sorry but being required to gather the stuff up is stupid but likely not to be s significant risk.

MiB

Who went to dental school many years ago

Human Toxicity
 

Just remember that rescue of wedding rings is best done with at least a fume hood if not a fume cabinet.

Exposure to mercury at room temperature is not that toxic as many high schoolers and their science teachers have demonstrated over the years.

As before said ingestion is not recommended.

Exposure to mercury fumes is a very poor idea, especially long-term.

Mercury compounds are very nasty, especially methyl mercury which has been implicated in Minimata disease in Japan and Northern Ontario.

Minimata like symptoms have been found in people who have eaten pork fed on seed grain treated with methyl mercury to prevent eating by insects and other small creatures.

Apparently the aircraft, G-BTUY is to be scrapped. I think they've flown it somewhere to strip it before scrapping the airframe.

Yes they were my fellow work colleagues,stripped down to underwear and given nice rinse down.The aircraft in question like mentioned G-BTUY a 146-300 is being scrapped as far as I know speaking to the engineers.Initially wasn't allowed to be moved for 72hours.It has departed to be stripped of all valuable bits and bobs.

Lets not start unsubstantiated rumours!!

The aircraft in question, was flown to EXT following clearance, where it underwent full x-ray inspection and investigation.

The aircraft was out of service for approximately 3 days and was only authorised back into service once exhaustive checks had been carried out. The volume of mercury was very small, however all was done to ensure the safe operation of the aircraft prior to it's return to service.

The airframe is fully serviceable and has been fully intergrated back into Flybe's fleet since it's inspection.

The Southern Air 747 that had the mercury spill years ago was an old Flying Tigers -200 N806FT. Polar flew it till 2003 and to the best of my knowledge is now being flown by Kalitta.

Since we're talking chemistry, sprinkling powdered (pure) sulfur on a mercury spill is a good way to contain the small droplets and keep the mercury from vaporizing. (Or from reacting with the aluminum in the airplane.)

Yes, methyl mercury can be very nasty stuff, but it takes months to do anything, and most liquid or vaporized elemental mercury, even if ingested, won't turn into that. (Still, it is a good idea to avoid direct contact and to keep the area well ventilated.)

"Mad Hatters" did go mad from Mercury, but that's because they worked with it day in and day out to make hats (it was used to prepare felt.)

As to what it does to the aluminum, I'll leave that to the engineers...

Disclaimer: Just my opinion!

http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/mercury/spills.htm