The Biz Buzz - Fuel contamination the answer to London crash?

Get the most up-to-date news, insights and analysis of South Sound business.

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

Fuel contamination the answer to London crash?

Posted by John Gillie @ 10:40:57 am

British and American accident investigators are narrowing their search for the culprit in last month's non-fatal crash of a British Airways Boeing 777 at London's Heathrow Airport.

That plane, inbound from Beijing, landed on a grassy area short of the runway when its twin engines failed to respond to the pilots' command for more thrust.

According to aerospace sources, the investigators are considering whether a slush of ice crystals clogged the fuel lines just as the plane was about to land, starving the engines of fuel.

According to the Wall Street Journal, both United and American airlines are reviewing their procedures to ensure that fuel contaminated with water isn't loaded onto their aircraft.

Categories: Aerospace

COMMENTS:

No COMMENTS for this post yet...

Comments are not allowed from anonymous visitors. Please login or register to comment.

The Biz Buzz

The News Tribune Business Team will keep you updated on what's happening in the South Sound and beyond. Check here for news about economic development, aerospace, shopping and much more.

Talk to us
Got something to say? Here's the place to say it. We welcome your comments on what's going on in business in the South Sound that we should be discussing, reporting or analyzing here on our blog or in the pages of The News Tribune.

Contributors

Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.

C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.

John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.

Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.

Devona Wells has been a reporter for 10 years, starting in Silverdale (where she grew up) then east to the Yakima Valley, down to Bakersfield, Calif., and even further south to Riverside. She primarily covers real estate at the TNT, including housing trends, new projects and consumer-related issues. You can check out Open House, her real estate blog, here.