Airplane mechanics: why would a plane have to burn off fuel before landing?
My local news just talked about a flight having to return to the airport after "mechanical issues with the nose gear", but then it said that the plane had to circle the airport for about an hour "ro burn off enough fuel for landing".
I'm curiois why would it have to burn off fuel instead of just landing? Especially if it turned around for mechanical issues.
Primarily; weight.
The more fuel an aeroplane is carrying, the heavier it is.
The heavier an aeroplane is - the greater the distance required to come to a stop after landing. Clearly the runway is too short for that aeroplane to land with a full load of fuel.
In the specific case of a mechanical fault with the nose gear - you're already looking at a potentially dangerous landing; why make it worse by putting a greater load on it than necessary?
In the event that the landing goes wrong, and a fire ensues; less fuel can only be a good thing.
It's better to land a lighter plane which won't make such a big hole in the ground if the nose gear fails when trying to land. (More fuel = bigger boom)
Because of the weight of the fuel.
The landing gear isn't designed to withstand the weight of a plane plus a full load of fuel.
The issue is probably in the landing of the craft and losing weight… It would be safer for a lighter craft to land and handle… Thus burning off fuel
The amount of fuel on board can affect the momentum of the craft upon landing, which would have to be countered by using 'more' brakes, which could lead to a rougher-then-normal landing AND accelerated wear on both the brakes and the tires. The airline could decide that the increased cost of possibly damaging both the brakes and the tires out weights some dumped fuel. THEN, with all the law suits a 'rough' landing could generate, that could swing the decision all the way against it. Also, the fuel load of the plane at takeoff is carefully calculated, giving the plane some extra fuel on board to cover any waiting before landing, but the plane is not given any more fuel then is needed; It is not just 'filled-up', so when the plane is readied for it's flight to resume, it will have to be re-fueled anyway.
It is because large aircraft have a greater allowable takeoff weight than landing weight, and this weight is comprised of fuel. A greater maximum takeoff weight is allowed because the stresses placed on the aircraft during takeoff are less than during landing. If the aircraft were to land overweight, then the tires might blow, the landing gear might collapse, the wings might be over-stressed, etc. So, unless it's a dire, life-threatening emergency, they fly around and burn off fuel so they can land safely within the maximum landing weight limit.
Engineering constraints, it brings the plane below the maximum weight-limit for landing. The stresses at touchdown of a fully fuelled & loaded plane are beyond the limits of the structure.
Because of the alien lizard overlords
Airplanes can be heavier when they take off than they can safely land. They have to burn off fuel to reduce weight so they don't over-stress the landing gear. In this case, the "mechanical issue" turned out to be just a defective sensor.
- Why don't airports use steam catapults and transverse arrestor cables, like they do on aircraft carriers, for extra short take-off & landing? 1. Airports could be pretty tiny with runways no longer than a football field 2. Takeoff and landing (takeoff especially) would be *much* more exciting 3. Airlines could charge people more money because the experience would be much more fun 4. It would save a lot of fuel with much less taxiing around the airfield, and much less fuel used during the takeoff phase
- Has it ever happened where an arriving plane had to take off immediately because there was no parking space at airport? Is it mandatory that all arriving planes have a parking space available? What IF it were to happen? What would be the solution?
- Do civilian aircraft mechanics require a security clearance? I understand that places like Lockheed Martin probably require their aircraft mechanics to have security clearances, especially when working on military projects. But what about normal airlines such as Delta, etc. How common are civilian aircraft mechanic jobs that don't require security clearances. I tried search engines, but all I get are job posting websites that don't answer my question.
- What happens if an airplane takes off on the runway without ATC clearance? Okay, I wonder what would happen if an airplane pilot pulls up the aircraft's throttle and then takes off from the runway without Air Traffic Control clearance. Could the pilot get in trouble? Will the flight attendants be in trouble too? Or will military aircraft be dispatched to shoot down the plane that has taken off from the airport with ATC clearance? I'm not a real pilot, so I don't know much about it, so yeah.