Major Fuel Leak before Take Off at Geneva
 

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

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

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

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

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

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:

Any damage
 

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

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

Thanks for the reply Fbrigade :)

Many ground staff contribute many pics to these sites
 

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.

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:

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

Cheers,

JI :-)

.
 

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

Foam in engine
 

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."

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...

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.

"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?

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

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

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.