Why can't airliners land while they still have fuel?

Question

I was reading this MSNBC.com article (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24525405/), and about halfway down someone states that "A plane with 100,000 pounds of fuel making a landing is an emergency in and of itself," and that "he aircraft would have to keep flying for nearly an hour while the crew dumped fuel."

Why?

Answer 1

Aircraft are designed with a max take off weight and a max landing weight - the landing weight is often times lighter than the take off weight (because of the capacity of the landing gear)

A plane that needs to land in an emergency may be over its max landing weight and have to dump fuel to lighten the load.

Answer 2

The maximum landing weight of an aircraft is much smaller than the maximum takeoff weight. So in an emergency, if they can (and there have been incidents when they cant, EG the plane doesnt have a fuel dumping facility), fuel will be dumped.

It's for safety, IE the landing gear could collapse on impact if the aircraft is too heavy, the aircraft may overshoot the runway as the extra weight means it will take longer to stop.

As i said earlier, aricraft CAN land with too much fuel, but only in extreme cases, for example this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Air...

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Airliners can land safely with any fuel load.  

Landing with 100,000 lb of fuel is not an emergency.

It would not take very long--nowhere near an hour--to dump enough fuel to get the gross weight down near the maximum weight for landing.

Landing overweight is at captain's discretion, and does not damage the landing gear.  Strain on the wing spars during a hard landing is a reason for considering the landing weight maximum.

Answer 4

Usually an airplane can land overweight as long as its decent rate is not greater than the aircrafts specifications.  However, if you remember the airbus out in CA with the nose gear that had rotated 90 degrees.  That plane circled the field until it could safely make an emergency landing.

The reporter was probably remembering back to that incident to try and justify what was happening in this one.

Answer 5

Hawg driver says it all, but if you're flying the A330, it has no jettison it can land even after T/Off with max fuel on board.Thats how powerful its engines are.

Answer 6

Extra fuel would cause an explosion or fire if a crash were to occur.  It is precaution.

Answer 7

MSNBC is a fairly dim bulb when it comes to technical matters like aviation.  The news media are always confused about airplanes, aviation, and related matters.

Many heavy aircraft have a maximum takeoff weight that is greater than the maximum weight at which they are permitted to land.  If the airplane has taken off at a weight higher than maximum landing weight, it must fly around to burn off fuel, or (if so equipped) release fuel to reduce weight before landing.

100,000 pounds of fuel is not all that much.  I would have to ask the news writer what he or she is thinking.  Most likely I would get a blank stare.

Answer 8

Because landing weight max can in many aircraft be lower than take of weight. They can however jettison fuel in an emergency by pumping it over board in many models but it takes time to do as well.