JustUnderPar

Anyone wonder how a company feels about their employee's? This article should sum it up!

At least one major cargo carrier, FedEx Corp., has committed to voluntarily equip more than 95 of its long-range, wide-body planes that fly oceanic routes with fire-suppression systems.

Fred Smith, FedEx's chief executive, said the company started developing fire-suppression technology several years ago after fire broke out on a FedEx DC-10 over New York. The fire was caused by an undeclared hazardous-materials shipment.

After making a hasty landing, Mr. Smith said, the crew "went out the emergency exit and the plane burned up." There were no fatalities, but had the fire occurred over the ocean, hours from an airport, there could have been a "real tragedy," he said.

Without such systems, pilots who get fire warnings from the cargo hold often must resort to making emergency descents to depressurize the aircraft and try to starve the flames of oxygen. FAA officials didn't have any immediate comment.


Read more: Plane Fires Prompt Battery Safeguards - WSJ.com

UPS management will NEVER do something like this unless required by LAW.

Naven

UPS has never once in the history of the airline and probably the whole company done anything to enhance safety above what is either required by law, osha, insurance or a labor contract.

Adlerdriver

Huh?
Starve the flames with that nice thick air at lower altitude, I guess.

MX727

If you are going to fly depressurized, you probably want to get down to 25K max. Of course, I'm probably thinking of the USAF rules and the mighty Tweet.

JustUnderPar

I was quoting the article......

ERJ Jay

This is what I don't understand,

FliFast

Let me see how little I know about the -400....

Fire Main Deck

Main Deck Cargo Fire Arm Switch..Armed

This shuts down Tu-pac (two packs). Correct me if I'm wrong, but it shuts off pack 2&3, and pack 1 goes to high flow to increase fresh air to the cockpit. Correct ?

If so, what happens if you have a pack#1 trip on climbout...what does the system do then ???


Secondly, equipment cooling is now in a closed loop..whatever that means.

So now the smoke/override valve opens to evacuate smoke using reverse flow differential-AND- the Flight Deck Equiptment Cooling Source Valve opens to the E&E compartment to use "conditioned air" to cool the screens and the radio racks.

Let me ask someone that knows about the -400. If you shed packs 2&3 and pack 1 has tripped is there any "conditioned air" to cool the screens and the radio racks ? If the radio racks get hot can they malfunction ? Thirdly, if you have a pack #1 trip, is this procedure still valid ?


Then:
Cargo Fire Depress/Disch Switch...push
This opens the outflow valves to depressurize the airplane to a 25,000 foot target altitude. The question again, if you have shed two packs and a third is inop, will the aircraft be able to modulate the outflow valves to achieve a 25,000 foot cabin altitude ? Secondly, if you totally depressurize the airplane, will the cockpit smoke evac handle (the vacuum cleaner port) be ineffective to clear cockpit smoke using differential pressure.

Anyone have some -400 knowledge to share..thanks.

Inquiring minds want to know,
FF

bleedairpacks

Wilson and I were so happy on our island too.

Huck

Seems like you'd still have venturi suction.

But would that just pull smoke into the cockpit?

Freightpuppy

Because a tragedy on a cargo plane would be an "insignificant loss of human life". Hopefully they will tell my children and their father that to their face if I ever die in a plane crash caused by fire.