Airplanes Can Dump Fuel in the Case of Emergency Landing
In keeping with our environmentally conscious world, airplanes do a lot to conserve fuel and make the best use of it that they can—under normal circumstances, that is. However, there’s a yin to every yang, and in this case sometimes a commercial pilot may have to make a decision to dump fuel while in flight. Why? Why would you do this? What sense does that make!?
Before you have an existential crisis, let’s look at the reasoning behind this dramatic decision. Fuel dumping is employed chiefly to reduce the overall weight of the aircraft prior to a landing. You see, aircraft are designed to operate within very specific parameters of weight, and the general design assumption is that planes will weigh much less when they land than the do when they take off. So, if the unexpected happens and an emergency landing becomes necessary, the pilot may open the fuel dump nozzles on the wings of the aircraft and let it go. The end result looks like a contrail on steroids—a heavy fog shaped like a long narrow cloud. But don’t worry about the folks down below, because the fuel thus dumped tends to evaporate fairly quickly and never reaches the ground.