Defueling delay
#1
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Defueling delay
We had a strange experience on UA 294 yesterday from SEA to SFO. The passengers were all boarded and then the captain announced that we had to wait to have 9,000 lbs of fuel removed, because the plane was originally intended to fly to IAD. We sat on the plane for about 30 minutes before the fuel truck arrived. We almost missed our connecting flight and many others had tight connections well.
It amazes me that United didn't realize the fuel needed to be removed sooner and take action to preclude disrupting connections.
It amazes me that United didn't realize the fuel needed to be removed sooner and take action to preclude disrupting connections.
#2
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Had the same issue at SFO last year on a SFO-DEN flight. We were delayed two hours on that one. On the bright side, 4 F pax deplaned due to missed connections, bumping us to First. And we got to meet hobo13 and family.
Last edited by SFO777; May 18, 2013 at 6:07 pm
#4
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Code:
D CRC/DO NOT SEND ANY MISCONNECTS...NO HOTEL SPACE IN SFO D HDQ/SEA SFO PROT UNDER GG CN1 L54
#6
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Better than tossing 9,000lb of pax and bags, I suppose!
In all seriousness, the fuel trucks are on schedules too. When UA decided to swap the a/c, for whatever reason, they likely contacted the vendor to get a truck out to offload fuel. 9k lbs is roughly ~1300gal, so it probably took some time to get an empty tanker out to the airplane.
In all seriousness, the fuel trucks are on schedules too. When UA decided to swap the a/c, for whatever reason, they likely contacted the vendor to get a truck out to offload fuel. 9k lbs is roughly ~1300gal, so it probably took some time to get an empty tanker out to the airplane.
#7
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#8
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Not uncommon. As others note it takes time to find empty trucks, divert them to an overweight aircraft and take care not to louse up the fueling schedule for the other aircraft. Unless someone has facts which suggest that there was an empty truck available earlier, I would suggest that commercial aviation operations aren't quite as simplistic as some think (or don't).
#12
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#14
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Not uncommon. As others note it takes time to find empty trucks, divert them to an overweight aircraft and take care not to louse up the fueling schedule for the other aircraft. Unless someone has facts which suggest that there was an empty truck available earlier, I would suggest that commercial aviation operations aren't quite as simplistic as some think (or don't).
FAB
Without facts, it's all speculation, but here's a little: could be that the A/C swap happened soon before, leaving little time and few resources to defuel. Often, if minimally overfilled, it's not cost-effective to defuel so we will burn it either before takeoff or while enroute, assuming the problem is overweight landing downline. Burning an extra 9,000 between SEA and SFO is not going to happen, though.
FAB
Last edited by iluv2fly; May 18, 2013 at 10:11 pm Reason: merge
#15
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 217
Say a plane can take off at a maximum weight of 200,000 lbs but may only weight 150,000 lbs for landing. Now imagine this plane is scheduled to operate a flight where the fuel burn will be 20,000 lbs. Even though the plane is capable of taking off at 200,000 lbs, in this scenario the airplane may only take off at 170,000 lbs (maximum landing weight + fuel burn).