STORM2K

Commuter plane from Bahamas , a King Air Turbo prop is going to make an emergency landing in Fort Lauderdale. Their landing gear will not go down. it is stuck in a half way position. They have been flying around the airport working on the problem, but to no avail. The pilot just notified the tower that he is headed out to the Everglades to dump his fuel. Hopefully to avoid a catastrophic landing. They are going to land in a few minutes. It is being carried on Fox, don't know about other networks. Prayers please.

Plane is safely on the ground. Possibly an indicator light problem. Gear was locked in place. Good job and professionalism from the pilots.

I agree about the good job by the pilots. But dumping fuel out in the Everglades...I realize they had all good intention...but at the same time to think about the ecosystem...hope no real bad effects from the fuel to wildlife.

Eric

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't aircraft fuel evaporate pretty quickly? It may never even have reached the ground depending on the altitude.

JenBayles wrote:Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't aircraft fuel evaporate pretty quickly? It may never even have reached the ground depending on the altitude.

Okay...I didn't know that...I was thinking like fuel liquid being sploshed down.

I'm curious as to why they didn't know it at least appeared to be all the way down. That should have been obvious in a fly by which I would think would have been done during the time they were trying to determine if there really was a problem.

AS to the fuel, I think Jenn is right. Planes routinely dump fuel as far as I know and we seldom here of it raining down or causing ecosystem damage-not saying it doesn't happen because I don't know, but that is my take on it.

Yes, they did have a visual from the tower . However they can only tell them that the gear appears to be down. It has to be locked into place. The indicator light said that it was not. You must take every precaution when you are carrying passengers. Had it been the pilots only onboard they may have just sat it down.
Also, fuel dumping is common. When your at a couple thousand feet and you drop a couple hundred gallons of jet fuel (which is what it was even though it was a prop plane) the fuel will evaporate quickly. Like you said it probably did not even make it to the ground. Flying over the Glades was just a safety precaution. No threat to the wildlife or ecosystem. I am a student pilot, pursuing a degree in Science in Proffessional Aeronautics. So I can imagine the unease that they were feeling.

i saw it too. you couldn't tell if they were locked down by any means. can't imagine the angst the passengers and pilot must have been feeling. they had 7 passengers on board. glad it all worked out ok.

JenBayles wrote:Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't aircraft fuel evaporate pretty quickly? It may never even have reached the ground depending on the altitude.

Our pilots do it to lighten their load when picking up survivors...the fuel is atomized so it evaporates prior to even hitting the ground...

Planes sometimes dump fuel before landing. It never reaches the ground.

Jet fuel evaporates very, very quickly...When I do my pre-flight inspection, we test for water in the fuel...so we drain a little bit from the wing...once we see that there is none we empty the fuel out of the spigot onto the ground...it barely even reaches the ground from about 5 ft...so there is no way it would ever reach Earth from any altitude.