AA S-80 fuel contamination, lots of cncld flts

[Midnight Flyer]

This is all news to me within the last couple hours or so. I'm trying to list myself on a flight tomorrow on AA and I noticed that 2 of the outbound flights I'm looking at have been cancelled for what appears to be no obvious reason. The flights I were wanting to get on are super-80's. It looks like many of them are being taken out of service because of chipping paint from inside of the fuel tanks that's contaminating the fuel and possibly causing flameouts. I heard that the company is saying there have been no flamouts, but a rumor was that allegedly there was a flameout on approach into Chicago. Anybody heard any of this? If this has already been posted, then i apologize, however, I found nothing when I searched.

 

[atrdriver]

I can't imagine any paint being used on the inside of fuel tanks.

 

[Midnight Flyer]

Yeah, I thought the same thing.
It's the fuel tank access covers.

 

[shroomwell]

Probably and excuse because they have no crews.

 

[Captain X]

Probably and excuse because they have no crews.

Well if they recalled furloughees, it would be a sign of weakness. And airline management teams must exhibit strength during these times so their employees will trust them.

 

[AKAAB]

I don't know if this ads to the discussion, but my first officer and I saw an AA Super 80 parked at the gate in PBI last week surrounded by CFR. The #2 looked like it had torched and the top reverser was completely sooted. We assumed a tailpipe fire and forgot about it...until three days later when we were again in PBI and spotted the same plane still parked.

Who has the story to share with the rest of the class?

 

[aa73]

Haven't heard about the PBI bird.

The fuel contam thing is true. Yes, we did have a flameout last year on approach into ORD, this was with an -80 that was still indicating about 5K or 6Klbs of fuel remaining.... when they parked and "sticked" one of the tanks, it was EMPTY!

We've gotten recent notices that certain tail numbers that have had Fuel Filter Press lights are being pulled into Mtx to correct this possible "paint chip" fuel contam problem.

73

 

[clickclickboom]

I don't know if this ads to the discussion, but my first officer and I saw an AA Super 80 parked at the gate in PBI last week surrounded by CFR. The #2 looked like it had torched and the top reverser was completely sooted. We assumed a tailpipe fire and forgot about it...until three days later when we were again in PBI and spotted the same plane still parked.

Who has the story to share with the rest of the class?

Every one I have ever seen on the road looks torched and sooted. It's the Apu Exhaust

 

[AKAAB]

Every one I have ever seen on the road looks torched and sooted. It's the Apu Exhaust

No sir. The upper bucket was completely covered - not like the normal APU frottage. The CFR crews were all standing around the #2. Also, my FO was a furloughed AA and flew the Super 80. He was the one that said he thought it was a tailpipe fire going by what he could see as we went by.

 

[zonker]

So I was reading this thread and I thought, WTF is frottage?

Good thing wikipedia has the answer.

:erm:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frottage