Delta flight crew never warned air traffic controllers about fuel dump over LA

The crew of a Delta flight did not ask for approval from air traffic controllers before dumping fuel on several Los Angeles area schools, causing minor injuries to children, before making an emergency landing, officials said.

Delta Flight 89, which was heading back to LAX after departing for Shanghai, dumped its fuel on the playgrounds of at least four elementary schools along the route, injuring at least 44 kids and adults on the ground, the LA County Fire Department said.

None of the people needed hospitalization, officials said.

“A review of yesterday’s air traffic control communications shows the Delta Flight 89 crew did not tell air traffic control that they needed to dump fuel,” the Federal Aviation Administration said.

“In this emergency situation, the fuel-dumping procedure did not occur at an optimal altitude that would have allowed the fuel to atomize properly,” it added.

Before making emergency landings, airliners often dump fuel to reduce their weight for safety reasons.

Pilots will typically declare an emergency and, if necessary, indicate the need to dump fuel, with controllers then directing them to an appropriate area to do so.

Fuel dumps are normally made above 10,000 feet and, ideally, over a body of water away from populated areas, to allow the fuel to turn to mist and dissipate.

But FAA regulations do allow dumps at lower altitudes — at least 2,000 feet above than anything on the ground within five miles.

According to the audio of the conversation between one of Flight 89’s crew members and a controller, posted on the website LiveATC.net, the pilot said the flight would return to the airport because one engine had compressor stalls.

The controller asks whether he needs to return to the airport immediately or to “hold to burn fuel.”

Pilot: “We’ve got it back under control. We’re going to come back to LAX. We’re not critical. We’re going to slow to 280 knots, and uh, why don’t you point us downwind at 8,000 feet (unintelligible) and we’ll turn back to LA.”

Controller: “OK, so you don’t need to hold or dump fuel or anything like that?”

Pilot: “Uh, negative.”

The Boeing 777-200, with 181 people aboard, was about five minutes into its flight when the crew reported having problems with the right engine, according to the LA Times.

When the plane was at an altitude of about 2,300 feet, the crew dumped fuel over Park Avenue Elementary School in Cudahy, dousing schoolchildren outside.

Dozens of people — many of them children — were treated by paramedics, but no one was seriously injured.

Delta said it shares “concerns regarding reported minor injuries to adults and children at a school in the area” and said the fuel was dumped to reach a safe landing weight.

The airline declined to comment later on the FAA statement but said on its website that 13 airline cleaning crews worked with school crews “to clean all outside surfaces that students could come into contact with.”