Tweet
You can get flames like that out of a turbine any time it is running, in the air or on the ground. There are many reasons for it, and it is most commonly seen during a wet or hot start. They are no big deal, just a little fuel burning off....
-
-
Regarding the B1B, that looks like the sort of impressive photo montage that would be used for a film.
Now to the nitty gritty and the VASP MD-11. The photo was reputedly taken in November 1997, the first year VASP operated to Zurich. The aircraft would be heading back home (did the service stop in Europe on the way?) and, from the photographer's description of the bangs he heard and the look of the flames, the scenario depicted and reported is one of a compressor stall.
If there was a scheduled stop in Europe and the engine showed no further signs of a problem, the aircraft was able to climb and maintain acceptable flight parameters, there would be no reason to return but, if the flight was non stop to Brazil, the normal procedure would have been to return as compressor stalls can cause damage. (Remember the Continental 747 that had a double compressor stall at Gatwick some years ago, had damage which meant it couldn't climb, missed Russ Hill by a few tens of feet and returned for an overweight landing?).
Does anyone in the Zurich area remember any return landing in November 1997?
Now to the photography bit, at first sight the flame does look very suspicious, I've only seen a couple of compressor stalls and both have produced flames similar to that depicted in terms of the temperature gradients and shape.
I have no worries about lack of reflection. The photo, as posted, gives the impression of a very moist day with a great deal of saturation of the atmosphere and this would disperse any chance of reflection as the overall brilliance is lacking in any real contrast and would supress any reflection. Even if it were much darker, there is very little for the flame to reflect off.
I've magnified the flame greatly and looked very carefully.
What worries me is the flame is too vertically cut off where it "emerges" from the engine. Obviously it has to be cut off somewhere as the tail pipe will form a boundary. With a compressor stall you can sometimes get a similar flame start outside the tail pipe as the hot gases and fuel become super saturated with the air and the flame starts away from the aircraft but such flames are normally like a ball of fire, not a jet of flame as here and with very ragged edges.
However, the more normal compressor stall flame is as depicted, comes from within the engine and is whiter (hotter) away from the aircraft as the air increases combustion.
The dark pointed mass in the middle of the flame looks like the distorted outline view of the engine's rear cone and matches it for length and thickness, given the distortion.
I've been to Zurich on days in November as is seemingly depicted here and have some very strange results from ordinary take offs piercing a super saturated atmosphere.
No physical event such as a compressor stall exactly mirrors another and no two resultant flames will be exactly the same. Few photographers have the luck to take perfectly focussed, perfectly exposed shots of one off happenings like this (even the video shots of the flames coming from the engines of the CO 747 at Gatwick, taken from within the cabin were poor quality).
On balance, I'd say that this is genuine, if I have reservations they are:
1. The start of the flame looks to be too cut off
2. With such a rare shot, why has it taken so many years to appear, not just on the net but anywhere.
I guess the only way to prove the situation is for either someone who worked for VASP at the time or someone in ATC at Zurich to come up with the answer.PhilBComment
-
Vasp Photo
1 its flying through the clouds (explains the white)
2. the flames are 2 dimensional (flat) and we all can see the engine is cylindrical
3. the first 1/2 of the fire is definetely fake,the color is too definite, probably made it with ms paint
B1 photo
1. this photo was not taken in the mountain, the shadows on the mts do not match the llighting on the nose and cockpit
i dont know much about the b1 but someone probably coulda flown it over the ocean then dropped in the mt background
and the shafow in the water matches the plane pretty well wich could go either wayyou might be an island hopper pilot if:
1. Turning on the airconditioning involves opening the cockpit window
2. The cabin door is in need of ductapeComment
-
Can anyone run a background check on the aircraft?? PP-SPLComment
-
I tried, and found nothing out of the ordinary (with the exception of the photo in question)
No records of any incident involving any VASP MD-11 within that time frame. I've searched engine records for PP-SPL and it used CF6-80C2D1F, a search on that found no reports regarding fires from the engines (that i could find anyway).
About the photo, I'm not doubting its authenticity, but it seems very suspicious.
Firstly, the strange white colour at the forward section of the aircraft looks like it was definately edited. I blew it up and found that you can faintly see the outline of it, which follows the shape of the fuselage. Also notice that the forward section windows just behind the cockpit are not properly aligned with the rest of the aircraft. Just behind that distortion, you may also notice that the blue line is not aligned as well. It is also strangely blur, which look to be the result of PS tools.
The wing fence also looks weird. the underside of the fence looks like it was made with an airbrush.
I also notice a line.. (hair possibly?) just under the engine which is on fire, behind the fuselage. It also looks like this part was edited, probably to erase it out. I notice that the fin also has a weird colour and is blue at one point.
Another feature of the photo that has caught my attention is that strange shadow under the engine on fire (no 2). At the end of the engine just before the fire you may notice that there is a strange shadow between it and the fuselage.Comment
-
What would we do without all these photo experts.... :P
Originally posted by nox
or someone named Dru Blair could have painted it....
or this
or this....now this has got to be real.....
Comment
-
Wow these are some nice paintings.
"The Director also sets the record straight on what would happen if oxygen masks were to drop from the ceiling: The passengers freak out with abandon, instead of continuing to chat amiably, as though lunch were being served, like they do on those in-flight safety videos."
-- The LA Times, in a review of 'Flightplan'Comment
Comment