Airline fuel jettison on 9/11 per the History Channel?

Question

They said that many planes had to dump fuel at altitude because they couldn't land with full tanks. Can someone explain this to me because I don't see why it would be necessary. Is there some mechanical reason for this or was it some kind of safety precaution? Thank you in advance for your responses!

Answer 1

Yes, more of a safety thing especially in emergencies. A heavier plane takes longer to stop. And You don't want extra fuel on board if there is a crash or fire.

Procedure is to fly in a holding pattern first and try burn as much fuel as possible. It could be hours and hours. If the situation deems necessary, the second choice is to dump it. But you also need a place to do it. They don't dump over cities, and usually it is into the ocean.

On 9/11 - thousands of air craft were forced out of the air ASAP. No, they didn't allow them to fly in a holding pattern for hours until they burnt off their fuel. Although it would take awhile to land them all. Jets were landing at airports they generally wouldn't land at. That includes larger jets than some airports generally get. So, again, if the runway is just long enough for the jet to land, you don't want extra fuel. And as high-jacked jets loaded with fuel was the issue, I would be ordering everyone to dump fuel too. The next high-jacked jet could have opted just to take out the airport.

Answer 2

Only certain types of planes are able to do this.

When they have an emergency landing, like thier tires are blown or something wont come down, they try to "dump" the fuel, so that when they make an emergency landing, no fire will occur if they crash, so that passenger may have a better chance of surviving.

But, like I said there are actually very few planes that are capable of this, most have to fly around, (like jet blue, when they had a front wheel turned sideways), for hours, until the fuel is "spent" and they try to trim thier flaps so that they have the greatest "drag" on the plane, thus using the fuel up in lesser time.

I wish you well..

Jesse

Answer 3

There is a difference between the maximum weight an airplane can take off with, and what it can land with. Landing puts different structural stresses than taking off. With some planes, the difference between maximum landing and take-off weights can be more than a hundred thousand pounds. Plus, it takes a longer distance for a plane to stop than to take off. A heavy plane needs a longer landing strip than it did when it took off. So if a plane has to land before it has travelled far, and hasn't burned off the fuel, it has to dump it. Not all planes can do that, so they have to burn it off by "dirtying up the airplane," or in other words, flying with flaps and landing down to increase the drag.

There are cases where planes have landed overweight, but they have to go through lengthy inpections to ensure that the structural integrity of the plane is still good.

Answer 4

a plane that is landing with a full tank weighs much more than one with a partially full tank, which means momentum requires a longer landing strip, possibly one which was shorter than the one they were landing in. Think about a plane going 500 mph with 700 pounds of fuel, will take much longer to stop safely than a plane going 500 mph with only 100 pounds of fuel

Answer 5

It's a safety precaution. Less fuel for fire in the event of a mishap. Happens all the time when a plane has to land at an alternate airport earlier than scheduled.

Answer 6

If a jet has an emergency and the possibility of crashing exist, they will dump as much fuel as possible. I don't believe this was the case on 9/11, but it may have been.

Answer 7

This must occur to bring the plane down to the maximum safe landing weight. Passenger airliners can take off well over their max landing weight under the assumption they will butn the fuel off before they reach their destination.

Answer 8

Safety?