Environment

Environmental rules 'could cause plane crashes'

by Amy Judd | September 5, 2008 at 12:06 pm

168 views | 2 Recommendations | 2 comments

The new environmental rules that demand that planes burn less fuel in flight could lead to a plane crash as it could allow vital pipes to freeze up.

David Reyonlds, an aviation expert, has said that cutting these emissions may cause accidents to happen in the air, as a jet earlier this year crash landed at Heathrow due to ice freezing up a supply line to the plane's engines, which would not happened if there was enough fuel being burnt.

"These rules need to be looked at again. Fuel flow is an import factor in the safe running of an aircraft engine."

"With reduced burn, that means that less fuel is circulating, which makes it easier for water to separate and turn into ice.

"In this case this was combined with very low temperatures and perhaps fuel which may have had a bit more water than usual - even though it complied with international standards.

"It was an unfortunate combination of circumstances but it does pose questions for all manufacturers, regulators and airlines."

Meanwhile British Airways is to reshuffle its fleet of Boeing 777s to prevent a repetition of the ice build-up which led to January's crash landing of one its aircraft at Heathrow.

BA has told their pilots to increase engine power sporadically during flights to increase the fuel flow and prevent build-up of ice.
The airline companies are trying to do anything they can at the moment to lower their emissions and fuel costs and keep their prices down.

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eastvanray

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 12:40 on September 5th, 2008

amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff.

davidlloyd73

at 13:09 on September 15th, 2008

Err I live in West London and to keep fit I thought I'd cycle to Heathrow to see the crash. It was 100 metres from the perimeter fence which has this middle secion that is made of corrugated metal so yoou cant see much at head height adn so you have to crouch. There were a few others looking to but not many.

davidlloyd73 has contributed a photo to this story.