Nasty Ice!

[lance smith]

a little ice for your cool-aid?

-lance smith

********************************************

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040907/D84UH7M00.html

Airplane's Toilet Ice Crashes Garden Party
Sep 6, 9:50 PM (ET)

GRAZ, Austria (AP) - It was an inelegant intruder on a sunny
afternoon: a chunk of ice from a jetliner toilet that broke free and
slammed into an Austrian family's garden.

No one was injured when the ice tumbled from the sky Sunday afternoon
in Graz, about 120 miles south of Vienna, authorities said. The
fragment bore deep into the soil in the garden, where the unidentified
family was enjoying a lazy summer afternoon.

Police said the 6-inch ice ball almost certainly came from an airliner
toilet, judging from its blue color and its odor. They did not
elaborate.

[Manuel]

> GRAZ, Austria (AP) - It was an inelegant intruder on a sunny
> afternoon: a chunk of ice from a jetliner toilet that broke free and
> slammed into an Austrian family's garden.


I thought that airplane toilets didn't flush outboard in-flight... so I
googled for it and found this:
http://www.faa.gov/fsdo/ord/blueice.htm

So how is this possible? Several news agencies quoted it, but it just
doesn't make sense to me.

Anyone?

-Manuel

[Orval Fairbairn]

In article >, "Manuel" >
wrote:

> > GRAZ, Austria (AP) - It was an inelegant intruder on a sunny
> > afternoon: a chunk of ice from a jetliner toilet that broke free and
> > slammed into an Austrian family's garden.
>
>
> I thought that airplane toilets didn't flush outboard in-flight... so I
> googled for it and found this:
> http://www.faa.gov/fsdo/ord/blueice.htm
>
> So how is this possible? Several news agencies quoted it, but it just
> doesn't make sense to me.
>
> Anyone?
>
> -Manuel
>
>

Sometimes the dump valves (which are used for servicing them) leak.

[AES/newspost]

In article >, "Manuel" >
wrote:

> > GRAZ, Austria (AP) - It was an inelegant intruder on a sunny
> > afternoon: a chunk of ice from a jetliner toilet that broke free and
> > slammed into an Austrian family's garden.
>
>
> I thought that airplane toilets didn't flush outboard in-flight... so I
> googled for it and found this:
> http://www.faa.gov/fsdo/ord/blueice.htm
>
> So how is this possible? Several news agencies quoted it, but it just
> doesn't make sense to me.

As I read this page, it says

1) Airplane toilet waste is not deliberately dumped overboard, and is
not supposed to be dumped overboard **if** the machinery all works as
it's supposed to.

2) Birds drop waste that can be mistaken for airplane droppings.

3) Airliners do emit blue ice from sinks which can fall off the plane,
but none of it should reach the ground ***if it comes from above 30,000
feet***.

But the striking thing is that it **nowhere** clearly says:

1) Can't happen, period (even if something does wrong).

2) Doesn't happen, hasn't ever happened, period (even in cases where
things went wrong).

The statement is dishonest -- or at best, disingenuous -- not in what it
says, but in what it carefully **doesn't** say.