Doofus Of The Day #518

Today's award goes to the Royal Air Force's Mount Pleasant airbase in the Falkland Islands. It seems personnel there made a costly error.

As many a driver knows to their cost, putting the wrong thing in your petrol tank at the local garage is an embarrassing business.

But when it's military aircraft you're dealing with instead of a Ford Focus - such a mistake can be very expensive indeed.

That's what red-faced air chiefs have discovered after de-icer was wrongly added to £1.5 million [about US $2.4 million] of aviation fuel – rendering it unusable.

The contaminated fuel was stored in a giant tanker at the Mount Pleasant RAF base on the Falklands.

Mount Pleasant airbase (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

Now a multi-million pound clear-up operation has been launched, as the military investigates how the accident happened.

. . .

Following the mistake, understood to have taken place within the last few months, a number of aircraft have had to undergo expensive repairs.

They include two military supply helicopters which have had full engine changes. Officials said this was a 'precautionary' measure and there was no danger of the aircraft failing mid-flight.

They also insisted the Typhoon fighter aircraft, which are stationed on the island in case of an Argentine assault, were not affected.

The fuel will not be thrown away, and will undergo an expensive cleaning process.

There's more at the link.

Oh, well . . . at least, if their fuel's full of de-icing fluid, the aircraft are unlikely to be bothered by cold starts!





Peter