[kellyhound]

Jaw-dropping footage filmed at Dallas Fort-Worth International Airport shows a ground crew member refuelling an American Eagle jet at Terminal E when the situation suddenly spirals out of control.

As the worker attempts to disconnect the hose from the aircraft, it violently whips beneath the plane, spewing streams of flammable fuel for nearly a full minute.

At one point, the startled worker appears to wipe his face - seemingly after being hit by the spraying fuel.

He then walks away as huge, dangerous pools of jet fuel begin to form under the aircraft.

Emergency crews rushed in and used special absorbent materials to contain the spill, while nearby gates were also temporarily paused.

No injuries or damage were reported, but aviation safety experts say incidents like this, while rare, can turn catastrophic in seconds if ignited.

Airbus data shows such refuelling mishaps occur in less than one per cent of operations.

But with over 89,000 flights departing daily across the US, even one mistake poses enormous fire risk.

American Airlines confirmed the spill occurred on Saturday.

The airline said: "We are looking into the incident with DFW Airport and the airport’s fuelling contractor, Menzies, and worked together on the cleanup per procedure."

DFW Airport officials told the spill containment system kicked in and crews quickly cleaned the area.

[Xploit Machine]

free fuel ..

[akham]

Fuuuuuck. How incompetent can the fueller be to not quickly shut off the flow of fuel. Bad enough that the spill happened in the first place, but to allow that much fuel to be spilled is just beyond belief.

And, of course, there's people on the plane.

Jet A1 isn't as flammable as petrol and won't usually ignite from a spark when ambient temperatures are low - but on the day this happened (Oct 11) temperatures at DFW reached around 33C (90F) ... the flash point of Jet A1 is 38C (100F), at that temperature any fuel vapour can ignite in air. That's a pretty close margin! And, of course, the apron tarmac could be hotter than ambient ...

The problem with having a hose whipping around is that it will atomize the fuel, creating a fuel/air mix that could very well hit the stoichiometric ideal of 2.2% (fuel/air ratio). The flammable range for Jet A1 is 0.7 - 5%, with 2.2% being the greatest risk of combustion.

This could easily have been a very bad day at DFW.

[rohmell]

Looks like one of those affirmative action type of employee.

[Mr.NoCredit]

What a complete idiot. Guy has less brain cells than a plant.

[akham]

I did a bit more research on this and discovered that FAA requires that there be a "deadman switch" installed on the fuelling line (either at the truck end or the nozzle end) so that fuel will only flow if the operator is holding the deadman switch closed. That, or another solution that provides equivalent protection.

This is a requirement at all airports certificated by the FAA under Part 139 (i.e. passenger airports) which, unsurprisingly, includes DFW.

FAA guidance for Part 139 airports refers to NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) 407 ("Standard for Aircraft Fuel Servicing"):

https://usfuelingsolutions.com/wp-co...-Servicing.pdf

The relevant part of NFPA 407 is clause 4.1.3:

4.1.3 Fuel Dispensing Systems.

4.1.3.1 Any valve that controls the flow of fuel into or from an aircraft fuel servicing vehicle or cart, or into or from an aircraft shall have a deadman control(s).

4.1.3.2 The deadman flow control in the nozzle shall be permitted for overwing fueling.

4.1.3.3 Notches or latches in the handle of an overwing nozzle that could allow the valve to be locked open shall be prohibited.

Both the city of Dallas and the city of Fort Worth fire codes require compliance with NFPA 407 specifically, irrespective of what the FAA requires:

https://codes.iccsafe.org/s/DALLASTX...Ch20-Sec2006.2

https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/code..._tx/0-0-0-3835

So, someone appears to have been breaking the rules. That does not appear to have been mentioned in the media as of yet.