I have just seen that a BA flight from London to Miami took a 2 hour detour to use up fuel before heading to its destination. It is not the first time I have heard of this.
Why do planes need to use up/dump the fuel before landing? Surely it’s better to be safe and have more than enough fuel for the entire journey therefore not use up a full tank just before landing?
In: 1
general theory:
– you want as little weight as possible in the plane when you land, because it’s less mass to brake down the speed of.
– the planes ability to land with a certain amount of fuel may never have been explicitly tested by the manufacturer, to the point where the plane is actually not insured if it lands with that amount of fuel
– bringing down an excess amount of highly flammable liquid during the phase of the flight that is most dangerous is…not really a bright idea, if you boil it down
– weight distribution is unpredictable if you carry a small-ish amount of liquid in a tank that can hold a lot more capacity, and you want the landing to be as predictable as possible.
Also, no. They don’t use up the tank entirely just before landing, just down to a minimum threshold (in minutes) so that they don’t land with more than they absolutely need.
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