Why wasn't there an alarm inside the plane about the fire? Perhaps I didn't read this properly.

Fair use etc http://www.star-telegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:STATE44A/1:STATE44A0308100.html

Updated: Wednesday, Mar. 8, 2000 at 22:13 CST

Engine flames out on B-1 Bomber after takeoff, sparks grass fires By The Associated Press ABILENE, Texas - An engine fire forced a B-1 Bomber from Dyess Air Force Base to cut a training flight short and return to the base Wednesday morning. But before the plane landed safely, molten material dripped from the aircraft and onto the ground, igniting 15 small brush fires in and around the base and forcing evacuation of an elementary school, base officials said.

No injuries or major property damage were reported, said Major John Boyle, chief of public affairs at Dyess Air Force Base. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

A damage estimate was unavailable on the $200 million jet, which had no weapons on board, Boyle said.

"Shortly after 10 a.m. as the plane left the ground, the control tower noticed flames from one of the engines on its right side," he said. "The four-man crew shut down two of the plane's engines."

The plane landed about 30 minutes later.

As it circled the airfield to land, melted material from the engine fell to the ground, igniting a dozen small brush fires in a grassy area near the runway and three small brush fires on private ranch land next to the base.

About 600 students from nearby Dyess Elementary School were evacuated, and classes were canceled for the rest of the day, said Deputy Superintendent Robert Glover. The school is about 1= miles east of where the brush fires burned.

"The school was evacuated because of the extremely dry conditions in the area," Boyle said. "It was better to be safe and evacuate it as a precaution."

Glover said no school property was damaged.

The brush fires on the base were extinguished within 10 minutes. It took about an hour to contain the blazes around the base.

The B-1 is a long-range strategic bomber, capable of flying intercontinental missions without refueling. The jet also has on-board equipment for locking in on and jamming enemy radar signals.

B-1s have four General Electric turbofan engines anchored to the body of the jet, at the base of the wings, which can provide more than 30,000 pounds of thrust per engine.

Distributed by The Associated Press (AP)

-- mike in houston (mmorris67@hotmail.com), March 09, 2000

Answers

mike

A couple of weird airplane stories this a.m. Look at the American Airlines one posted on the Russian plane crash thread:

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002jtG

-- viewer (justp@ssing.by), March 09, 2000.

Update on Moscow plane crash

Private jet crashed near Moscow, killing all nine on board

March 9, 2000 Web posted at: 9:43 a.m. EST (1443 GMT)

MOSCOW (CNN) -- Nine people -- five crew members and four passengers -- died when a private jet crashed Thursday morning immediately after takeoff from Moscow's Sheremetyevo-1 airport, the Interfax news agency reports.

The Yak-40 was en route from Moscow to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, officials said. According to Interfax, the passengers were a well-known Russian journalist, Artyom Borovik, two of his colleagues, and Zia Bazhayev, president of the Russian oil company Oil Alliance.

There was no indication of what caused the crash.

The Yak-40 is one of the oldest Soviet-designed planes. It was manufactured between 1965 and 1981, and has a capacity of 27 passengers and five crew members. This plane was scheduled to be scrapped in June.

http://CNN.com/2000/WORLD/europe/03/09/russia.crash.03/index.html

-- Chris (!@#$@pond.com), March 09, 2000.