Lufthansa Airbus drains 75 tons of kerosene over northern Bavaria - not an isolated case
Created: 2022-04-08 04:51
By: Klaus-Maria Mehr
Actually, the Airbus should fly to Singapore on Sunday.
However, he only made it as far as Lower Franconia, where he dumped 75 tons of kerosene and then flew back.
Something like this happens more often.
Flight LH 778 from Frankfurt am Main to Singapore was ill-fated from the start.
The plane took off from Frankfurt at around 10:20 p.m. with a 25-minute delay.
He didn't get far after that.
Rather than jetting off in a straight line toward Southeast Asia after takeoff, the long-haul aircraft turned east just before 11 p.m. Sunday evening (April 3), gaining altitude to as high as 14,000 feet (4,267 meters) before descending Turn north again at 11 p.m.
Incident on Sunday in northern Bavaria: Lufthansa machine turns several curves over Franconia
There, the so-called "fuel dumping" began, in English: unloading fuel, while the plane described several rectangles over Lower Franconia, as
mainpost.de
first reported.
The described rectangle of the Lufthansa machine started via Rothenburg, then west again north past Würzburg and back south almost to Schwäbisch Hall.
Finally, in another curve around Schweinfurt and Bad Kissingen, it went back to Frankfurt.
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Lufthansa Airbus with technical problems: 75 tons of kerosene dumped over northern Bavaria
The trajectory of Lufthansa's A340-313.
Due to technical problems, the plane had to dump 75 tons of kerosene over northern Bavaria.
© Flightradar24/Google Maps/Imago
The machine released 75 tons of kerosene at a height of around 4260 meters.
The reason: the machine had technical problems, would not have been able to survive its long-haul flight to Singapore and therefore had to return to Frankfurt.
The problem with this: The machine was full of fuel.
Their weight significantly exceeded the permitted maximum for a landing.
Although passenger aircraft may take off with a full tank of fuel and with a higher weight, the maximum weight for a landing must be significantly lower.
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Fuel dumping over Bavaria is not an isolated case: two similar actions in March
For this reason, machines that experience technical problems shortly after take-off and return must empty their tanks before landing.
An expensive fun at the current fuel prices, but happens more often than you think.
Northern Bavaria in particular seems to be a popular corner for this.
The Luftfahrt-Bundesamt publishes all “fuel dumpings” over Germany in a PDF.
In addition to the 75 tons on Sunday, another machine, also over northern Bavaria, dropped 50 tons on March 25th.
On March 14th another plane also in northern Bavaria 45 tons.
Quite a lot of fuel that is being sprayed over Franconia.
The Bayerischer Rundfunk asked the Federal Environment Agency how good this is for the landscape.
According to the authorities, fuel dumping has “no critical impact on people and the environment”.
The Federal Office refers to an environmental toxicological assessment, in which the effects on the air, the soil, the groundwater and human health were considered.
A large part of the kerosene therefore still evaporates in the air.
