[AT] Check your grounds, OT news, and Portland

[Dudley Rupert]

Dean & Walt,

Ah yes, if the initiation of critical events by the spacecraft/mission
control is dependent upon the fuel quantity then I can certainly see the
necessity for the high integrity fuel quantity indication system.

Your stories, Dean, about running low on fuel remind me of the Air Transat
(a Montreal charter outfit) incident that occurred some four or five years
ago.  An Airbus A330 departing from somewhere in Canada was on its' way to
Lisbon when it lost both engines while still nearly a thousand miles out
over the Atlantic.  Due to some computer glitch (I don't recall the details
now) the crew did not know at the time that they had run out of fuel.  The
crew earned their pay that day - they "glided" the jet for something like a
half hour going some 80 or 90 miles and landed flaps up at nearly 200 knots
(with no thrust reverse of course) on a runway on one of the outer Azores.
The airplane sustained blown tires, burned brakes and damaged landing gears
but there were only minor injuries to a few of the passengers. Inspection
later revealed that a fuel hose had ruptured.

Dudley
Snohomish, Washington