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To say the airplane "blew up" is not correct. Hoyt Flemming had a
beautiful Lancair ES. He had taken the airplane back to the painter to
do some final touch up work. I think the project was to smooth out the
paint line transitions where the accent stripes and the main white color
would meet.
After all of the sanding the painter blew the dust off of the wings
using a high pressure air nozzle. The static buildup from the sanding
discharged over the open fuel tank filler. The tanks had been drained
leaving only vapor. The "flash" ended as soon as it started. But the
wing was damaged.
The real problem started where the fuel lines connect to a bulk head
fitting between the wing root and the fuselage. No body noticed but a
small fire had started and burned the side of the fuselage, through the
unibid carbon structural member, and smoke damaged the interior.
Attention was given to the wing and the flash and the small fire
continued to smolder for several minutes unnoticed.
The wing could have been replaced and the smoke damage repaired. But
because the "Uni" was burned the airplane became a constructive total
loss and was sold as salvage.
It was truly a tragedy! Certainly avoidable. But it involved
circumstances that nobody had ever considered before. A perfect example
of how we all can make it a lesson for future builders.
Bryan
N132BB
-----Original Message-----
From: Lancair Mailing List [mailto:lml@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of
marv@lancair.net
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 1:22 PM
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: [LML] Re: Fuel tank camera for inspection of Lancair fuel tanks
Posted for "colyncase on earthlink" <colyncase@earthlink.net>:
Bryan,
which ES are you talking about that "blew up"?
I had heard of one that burned but the story I got was that a power
sander generated too much heat and that is what lit off the vapors in
the
tanks. Also hadn't heard that anyone was injured. Is this the same
plane?
Colyn
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