United Coffee Spill causes diversion
01-05-2011 | 10:57 AM
#11
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 5,508
Likes: 109
I had an FA drop a closed can of Coke on the corner of the center console. Bottle a carbonated beverage at sea level, puncture it at about 7,000 MSL, and you get a Coke grenade. Spray everywhere... my uniform... the instrument panels... and most importantly, it shorted out one of the comm radio heads and the printer. Had it gotten to either the engine or cargo fire systems, I had a divert on my hands. Long story short... stuff happens.
01-05-2011 | 04:14 PM
#15
Prime Minister/Moderator
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 44,886
Likes: 684
From: Engines Turn or People Swim
Maybe we need two-pilot confirmation when setting squawk codes, especially THOSE codes. That could have been red-banner headlines...or combined with NORDO much, much worse 
01-05-2011 | 05:53 PM
#16
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 693
Likes: 0
From: A-320 FO
Great as episodes like these hit the airwaves, more freedoms are taken away. We can't have cans on the flight deck since an empty Coke can rolled behind a control pedestal and jammed, the crew had to do a disconnect and reported it. We're doing drug testing since a coke head out of Durango totaled a Beech 02 twenty years ago, and alcohol testing due to another crew's erred judgement. I cannot imagine a seven hour ride with no liquids on the flight deck.
01-06-2011 | 03:38 AM
#17
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 992
Likes: 0
From: retired
Douglas engineers solved this problem on the MD80 by strategically placing the clear view window release tab in a position to catch the edge of your coffee cup as you quicky pulled it out of the cup holder and thereby dumping the entire contents into your open flight bag. This would invariably happen only if the cup was full and your flight bag happened to be open.
01-06-2011 | 11:04 AM
#18
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 219
Likes: 0
From: PT Inbound
I solved this problem with $10. I bought a travel coffee cup that doesn't leak. It has a rudder grip, a leak-proof lid w/ open/close push button (easy 1 hand opening), holds twice as much coffee as any airport food court coffee cup, and won't spill even when the portable O2 bottle is dropped on it during egress lol.
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