Tue, Jul 01, 2008
Airliner Dumps Fuel Over Lake Michigan
Officials are working to determine why an All Nippon Airways
Boeing 777-300ER bound for Japan was forced to make a single-engine
return approach to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport Monday
morning... while residents expressed concern about the
environmental impact from the fuel the heavy airliner was forced to
dump over Lake Michigan.
Initial reports said the airliner (type shown above) may have
suffered a bird strike on climbout from ORD, requiring the right
engine to be shut down... but FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory
told The Chicago Tribune the engine became inoperable due to
unspecified "metal fatigue." The exact cause remains
undetermined.
In order to land within weight limits, the airliner had to dump
about 1,450 gallons -- or 4 percent -- of its fuel load over Lake
Michigan, the nearest unpopulated area near Chicago... causing some
concern from Chicago residents.
However, officials said only about two percent of the fuel
probably reached the lake, since the fuel was dumped above 5,000
feet, allowing much of it to evaporate on the way down. That leaves
about 32 gallons, all of it in small droplets, which will likely be
broken down within a week by the combination of sunlight, wind, and
hydrocarbon-hungry bacteria present in the lake.
April Markiewicz, associate director of the Institute of
Environmental Toxicology at Western Washington University, told the
Tribune those bacteria usually feed on naturally-occurring
hydrocarbons, such as those found in discarded wood.
City officials will monitor the lake, to make sure none of the
fuel makes it into the municipal water supply.
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