by Captain Joe

Today’s video will all be about the fuel jettison procedure, or better known as “FUEL DUMPING”.

Why do pilots dump costly fuel overboard, after you have just paid for it as a passenger? And what a terrible pollution of the environment!

So pilots have to have a good enough reason why they do that?

As jets began flying with US airlines in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the FAA rule in effect at the time mandated that if the ratio between an aircraft’s maximum structural takeoff weight and its maximum structural landing weight was greater than 105%, the aircraft had to have a fuel dump system installed.

Aircraft such as the Boeing 707 and 727 and the Douglas DC-8 had fuel dump systems.

Any of those aircraft needing to return to a takeoff airport above the maximum landing weight would jettison an amount of fuel sufficient to reduce the aircraft’s weight below that maximum landing weight limit and then land.