Wrong fuel caused plane crash?

Bangalore: The six-seat Vulcanair Partenavia (P-68C) aircraft that crashed shortly after take-off here on Saturday appears to have had the wrong fuel in its tank. This discovery has led the investigating team from Chennai to shift its focus to the city’s HAL Airport, where the aircraft was last refuelled.
The team found traces of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) from the wreckage, instead of the blue-dyed low-lead Avgas 100LL that should have gone into the P-68C tank. While ATF is used by turbine-powered aircraft, Avgas is the gasoline meant for reciprocating piston engine aircraft such as the one that crashed into the Gowdanapalya lake, said Civil Aviation Ministry sources.
It was not immediately clear how the colourless ATF was mistaken for blue-dyed Avgas.
The investigating team inspected the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) records at the HAL Airport on Monday, the sources said. IOC supplies aviation fuel to the airport.
Avgas fuelling nozzles for over-wing dispensing are painted red. To help prevent the possibility of jet fuel being supplied to a piston engine aircraft, the nozzle of an Avgas fueller is limited to a maximum diameter of (internationally) 40 mm (49 mm in U.S.A) and the aperture on an aircraft Avgas tank to a maximum of 60 mm diameter.
Avgas 100LL and Avgas 100 are two major grades of this fuel currently in use internationally. For easy identification, Avgas 100LL is dyed blue, while Avgas 100 is coloured green.
11/09/07 Rasheed Kappan/The Hindu

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Categories: Safety Sep 2007