BA hanger in Heathrow foam system fault

Davy

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11549442/british-airways-planes-sabotaged/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8287587/Sabotage-technical-fault-British-Airways-777-787-covered-five-tons-foam.html

The finger of blame was originally pointed at disgruntled BA staff facing either redundancy or agreeing to contracts with less pay.

At least 931 engineers, some of whom were at the scene, are among the 12,000 staff getting the boot.

But British Airways has insisted a technical issue was to blame.

An insider told The Sun: “There’s a lot of p***ed off people at BA at the moment and suddenly two of their jets have been ruined.

john boye

Davy wrote: »

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11549442/british-airways-planes-sabotaged/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8287587/Sabotage-technical-fault-British-Airways-777-787-covered-five-tons-foam.html

I love when awful tabloids make up quotes but then use words and phrases in them that only tabloids use. I can't see anyone in BA referring to aircraft as "jets".

Board Walker

You'd swear they dropped the gantry straight through the cockpit and into the cargo deck

spurious

How does that damage the aircraft? Is there something corrosive in the foam? The videos I saw just showed it sprayed around the floor.

Foggy43

This incident happened between April 30 and May 4. The aircraft you see flew out last night to Armistar on repatriation duties. I would say that foam is for a major fuel spill. No damage to the aircraft.

GhostyMcGhost

john boye wrote: »

I love when awful tabloids make up quotes but then use words and phrases in them that only tabloids use. I can't see anyone in BA referring to aircraft as "jets".

Only a boffin would use such a term

JohnC.

I like how a bit on the floor, around the bottom of the tyres, equates to aircraft "covered" in foam.

Board Walker

Foggy43 wrote: »

This incident happened between April 30 and May 4. The aircraft you see flew out last night to Armistar on repatriation duties. I would say that foam is for a major fuel spill. No damage to the aircraft.

Aircraft's fuel tanks are emptied before going in.

Foggy43

Board Walker wrote: »

Aircraft's fuel tanks are emptied before going in.

That is not always true. It depends on what maintenance is required. That particular hanger is a casualty unit.

billy few mates

Board Walker wrote: »

Aircraft's fuel tanks are emptied before going in.

That almost never happens.

Tenger

JohnC. wrote: »

I like how a bit on the floor, around the bottom of the tyres, equates to aircraft "covered" in foam.

It’s The Sun and The Daily Mail, facts don’t really matter......

L1011

spurious wrote: »

How does that damage the aircraft? Is there something corrosive in the foam? The videos I saw just showed it sprayed around the floor.

AFFF is slightly corrosive. You don't want it inside engines etc.

Stovepipe

billy few mates wrote: »

That almost never happens.

It depnds on whether access to the inside of a tank is required or if the aircraft is to be weighed.

Stovepipe

Some foam systems will fill the hangar to the roof with foam and there was a famous incident in a US army hangar when a dozen helicopters were covered in the stuff, so all of the pitot-static systems, engine inlets, air ducts and so on had to be flushed out, on all of the aircraft.caused a lot of bother.

billy few mates

Stovepipe wrote: »

It depnds on whether access to the inside of a tank is required or if the aircraft is to be weighed.

Even still, unless it was something completely unplanned that cropped up on a fully fuelled aircraft, in my experience it would be far more usual for the fuel to remain onboard and transferred to one tank while you work in the other, once you drain an aircraft fuel tank you have to have somewhere to store it or it gets wasted as it can't usually be put on another aircraft unless it belongs to the same operator, and even that's not always possible.
Even when you reweigh them (once every four years) it would be unusual to drain them before bringing them into the hangar because on most aircraft the hydraulic system heat exchangers are located in the fuel tanks as the fuel is used to cool the hydraulic fluid, if the tanks are empty you can't use the aircraft hydraulic system so if you have to move flight controls you're stuck unless you have an external rig, which some places might not have. Any place I ever worked when we did a reweigh we arranged it so that the fuel only came off at the very last minute so it could be stored briefly and immediately put back on after the weighing was completed.