Reservist and helicopters crash

[KellyPaDem]

One of the lesser mentioned aspects of the reservist story is that the fuel they were asked to deliver was contaminated with water.

They took the fuel to one base and were told that the fuel was contaminated with water and that the base would not accept it. They then took the fuel back to their base where they were ordered to deliver the same contaminated fuel to another base. They refused to deliver the fuel for security reasons however, the fuel did get delivered.

Then I see a brief mention that over the weekend 2 helicopter crashes that killed two soldiers and injured two more. Am I starting to see Bush administration boogie men around every corner or could these items be related. Below are links to both stories. Does anyone know what happens if fuel contaminated with water is used in helicopters.

brief mention of the helicopter crashes.
http://www.kwtx.com/news/headlines/1107991.html

brief story about the reservists that mentions the contaminated fuel
http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=2444072

[atreides1]

1. What Kind of Fuel Was It?

What has to be determined first, is what kind of fuel were they carrying. If it was aviation fuel then perhaps there could be a connection, providing that the helicopters that crashed belonged to the same unit that received the fuel.

There is always the chance that it was fuel for ground vehicles.

As for what effects aviation fuel contaminated with water would have on the helicopters, I don't know. But maybe someone here has the knowledge.

[Wickerman]

2. This morning on NBC they said its not water, its that the tanks

carried jet fuel and weren't scrubbed prior to changing fuel types. The result would be similar - very unsafe.

[jhain]

3. av fuel contaminated

av fuel contaminated with diesel

[Wickerman]

4. or, the other way around

thanks for the correction, jhain.

:hi:

[Bandit]

9. Aviation fuel is diesel

Just a finer grade of diesel. JP 4 is basically just number 1 heating fuel. Number 2 is common diesel, number one is stove oil. Same petroleum product one is refined a bit more.

[jmowreader]

7. Folks, it's the same fuel

As you'll see later on in this thread, the Army uses JP-8 in both aircraft and ground vehicles. This "excuse" is false on its face--diesel's diesel. And you can run diesel in an aircraft, so long as it's been filtered properly so it won't clog the fuel control.

[MaryH]

5. It was the son of a customer of ours that was killed.

He flew an Apache helicopter. More importantly he was a son. And he leaves behind a destroyed family.

[MaryH]

8. His Name Was Christopher Johnson and he was 29.

And, like all the rest of them, he was a great guy.

[jmowreader]

6. It will crash the aircraft, that's what happens

Remember a few days ago I said that water-contaminated fuel will take the tips off a fuel injector on a diesel engine? Jet engines run at higher fuel pressures than diesels do, so the problem there is even worse. (And normally they're even more paranoid--they will take an aircraft out of service and drain the tanks if they even hear rumors of water contamination. This shit is life-and-death to aviators.)

Well, guess what, campers: The military no longer uses DF-2 diesel fuel. It uses JP-8 fuel, which is certified to run in either turbine engines (replacing JP-4) or diesels (replacing DF-2). Therefore, this fuel could have been put into an aircraft--and my bet is the receiving base was shown a water-paste test from some OTHER fuel--"don't worry, this fuel is just fine."

If it turns out this fuel went to the base the two helicopters fueled at, someone needs to stand for two counts of capital murder. Because that's what happened.