Fuel leak question
 

Hi,
Just looking for opinions on a question I had in a written test in an interview process recently.

The question asks that while doing your walk around you see a small amount of fuel leaking from a drain mast on an engine and what your reaction will be...
Options included choices such as 'doesn't matter', 'refuse to fly the aircraft and report to maintenance' and running the engine for 5 minutes to see if the leak stops.

Well I've always been told and common sense would dictate that fuel leaking from something is abnormal but after mentioning the question to others and searching online it seems the reality is less clear and certain amounts of fuel dripping are acceptable.

The question was on a test for an operator using A320s by the way.

Would be useful to know what others think and how you'd answer such a question? :)

Cheers.

In the real world report the matter to a ground Engineer for investigation. I would not operate the aircraft until expert opinion had been sought.

The maintenance manual may specify a max amount of 'drops per minute' that is allowable. If the rate is within this amount then I would continue to operate the aircraft once all the relevant paperwork was complete.


Regards
Exeng

That is only valid during engine start. During the walk around is a different matter.

I would call maintenance right away

Hi,

Yes they operate A320s. Thanks, yes I just found that in FCOM3 (3.03.08) and while I wasn't actually familiar with that specific paragraph (always learning), it just seems to be related to fuel leaking during the engine start itself which I can understand but the question in the test asked about during the walk around.

B.