There's too much fuel on board... unload the passengers!

I THINK to pump fuel out renders it no longer usable. Especially for commercial purposes.

A 737 holds a lot of fuel.

Just shows you where these companies heads are. **** the passengers, we need to save money.

 

You can pump fuel out, but you don't get the money you paid for the fuel back. In fact, you'll get charged a de-fueling fee.

From what I know about EasyJet (not that much, just some things I've read), I'm sure they ran the numbers and decided that moving passengers to another flight was the most cost-effective solution.

30 passengers x 200 lbs each (passengers plus baggage) = 6,000 pounds of fuel-- or about 890 gallons.

It's probably also true that de-fueling would have resulted in a significant delay, which could have had ripple effects throughout their system.

Certainly not the best way to handle it from a customer service point of view, but it is good to understand the other considerations involved.

 

They should have told everyone to get off the plane, moved it to another gate, re-loaded the number of passengers they could fly with and put the rest on another flight.

Tell them that it was a mechanical issue on the "original" plane. People still get pissed but they wouldn't know the difference.

 

I thought I would make this my first post since I have firsthand experience in this situation. Flew from Chicago O'Hare to South Bend, IN which is probably 20 min from wheels up to wheels down. We were delayed due to maintenance problems on our plane which ultimately led to getting a different plane which was already fueled for a much longer flight. I struck up a conversation with a pilot attempting to dead head home, and this is what he told me.

a) fuel cannot be reused

b) not all fuel truck operators are certified to de-fuel aircraft, so if one is not on hand there can be a wait.

c) fuel cannot be put back into storage tanks the same as it cannot be reused on a plane, so if there are no empty fuel trucks they have to wait until an aircraft needs fuel so they can empty the truck.

d)the weight doesn't necessarily affect takeoff, its the combination of where you are landing and what your expected landing weight that matter.

 

Instead of removing the last 30 passengers to board, they should have just taken off the 20 fattest passengers...10 fewer pissed off people.

 

On a short trip, landing weight is often the limiting factor. I remember having to de-fuel a Learjet once (at great expense) after the highly disorganized owner decided they wanted to go 50 miles instead of the 1,800 mile trip they told us about two hours previously.

 

Fuel removed from one aircraft can be reused. But it can only go to another airplane operated by the carrier from which it was removed.

Ref JIG 1 6.6 (outside the US) or ATA 103 2-1.7(US)

In addition the fueling company has to be to agree to dedicate a truck to store the fuel or have available a segregated tank to hold it until it can be returned to the airline.

At many airports hydrant systems deliver the fuel to the aircraft and tanker trucks are in limited supply. This is not the case at BHX however where the two suppliers have 13 trucks between them.

Defueling in itself is not to difficult. Hook up the truck, set it to "defuel". Open the defuel valve and/or crossfeed valves as applicableto the a/c, turn on the boost pumps in the tanks you want to empty and watch the qty go down. When you get to the desired level shut off the pumps, return everything to normal, disconnect the truck and away you go.