 |
37000 Feet | Browse and search NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System |
|
International air carrier B767 captain reported he was concerned about the safety of his airline's operations in the far northern routes to europe.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1324560 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201601 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0001-0600 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | CZQX.ARTCC |
| State Reference | NF |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | IMC |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B767 Undifferentiated or Other Model |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Cruise |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain Pilot Not Flying |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 161 Flight Crew Type 9490 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types |
Narrative:
I was recently dispatched from [a west coast airport] on a northern random route to paris. The B767 was fueled with jet a; which has a minimum temperature limit of -37 degrees C. The coldest enroute fuel temperature from the flight plan remarks the dispatcher gave us was -38 degrees C; lower than our limit. This essentially required us to ignore the speeds and altitudes we were forecast to fly in order to keep our fuel temperature above the limit. The sat at 64N on our route of flight actually reached -70 degrees C; pretty darn cold. If [we are] going to fly these northern latitudes in this aircraft; it needs to provide the aircrews with some minimum polar training; equip the aircraft with a polar suit in the event of a diversion (how will the first officer do a walk around in minus 26 degrees; which was the temperature at one of our diversion alternates; cyyq?); and provide aircrews with the minimum fuel freeze point for the fuel loaded. The operation as currently conducted is not entirely safe.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: International Air Carrier B767 Captain reported he was concerned about the safety of his airline's operations in the far Northern routes to Europe.
Narrative: I was recently dispatched from [a West Coast airport] on a northern random route to Paris. The B767 was fueled with Jet A; which has a minimum temperature limit of -37 degrees C. The coldest enroute fuel temperature from the flight plan remarks the dispatcher gave us was -38 degrees C; lower than our limit. This essentially required us to ignore the speeds and altitudes we were forecast to fly in order to keep our fuel temperature above the limit. The SAT at 64N on our route of flight actually reached -70 degrees C; pretty darn cold. If [we are] going to fly these northern latitudes in this aircraft; it needs to provide the aircrews with some minimum polar training; equip the aircraft with a polar suit in the event of a diversion (how will the first officer do a walk around in minus 26 degrees; which was the temperature at one of our diversion alternates; CYYQ?); and provide aircrews with the minimum fuel freeze point for the fuel loaded. The operation as currently conducted is not entirely safe.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.