Delta pilots didn’t seek permission before dumping fuel that rained on school kids

The Delta pilots who bombarded elementary school playgrounds with jet fuel before making an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport failed to notify air traffic control of the need to jettison fuel and did not dump it at an optimal altitude, the FAA said Wednesday.

Pilots typically are directed by controllers to an appropriate area to dump fuel, a protocol that did not occur Tuesday, the FAA said in a statement.

“The FAA is continuing to investigate the circumstances behind this incident,” the statement said.

Delta made national news Tuesday when pilots of Flight 89 bound for Shanghai dumped the fuel before making an emergency landing moments after takeoff. Delta said the twin-engine Boeing 777 had experienced engine problems.

Scores of people on the ground, including students at multiple elementary schools, were treated for eye and skin irritation, Los Angeles County fire officials said. Decontamination stations were set up, but no injuries required hospitalization, authorities said.

Peter Goelz, a former managing director for the National Transportation Safety Board, said it might be too early to judge the decisions of a pilot trying to ensure the safety of his passengers and crew.

“A 777 flying nonstop to Shanghai is absolutely loaded with fuel,” Goelz said. “So loaded that to land right away after takeoff poses a significant danger.”

Goelz, who is not involved in the investigation, said guidelines usually call for fuel to be dumped over water and/or at an altitude of 10,000 feet so it can disperse and minimize environmental damage. But the rules change for a very heavy plane that needs to get back on the ground, he said.

Goelz said every pilot knows the story of Swissair Flight 111, a Geneva-bound MD-11 out of New York that plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean off Nova Scotia on Sept. 2, 1998. None of the 229 people aboard survived. The crew had called in an emergency but was flying away from an airport so it could dump fuel over water when it crashed.

“Pilots know that when you have a problem that threatens the aircraft and you have to get rid of fuel, you get rid of it fast,” he said. “You don’t want things like this (contamination) to happen, but the alternative is too dire.”

The FAA said it was investigating the fuel dump, noting that procedures call for fuel to be dumped over “designated unpopulated areas, typically at higher altitudes so the fuel atomizes and disperses before it reaches the ground.”

Delta said the unexplained engine issue required the plane to “return quickly” to LAX.