Aviation fuel leak discovered on carrier

[unhappycamper]

Aviation fuel leak discovered on carrier
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Dec 5, 2008 21:16:13 EST

SAN DIEGO — A gasket in a JP-5 fuel filter ruptured on Thursday evening, leaking fuel in the fuel filter room and adjacent spaces aboard the nuclear carrier Abraham Lincoln, Navy officials said Friday.

The leak was discovered about 6:30 p.m. while the Everett, Wash.-based Lincoln was conducting carrier qualifications operating off the Southern California coast, U.S. Third Fleet officials said in a statement issued Friday afternoon.

Fuel had leaked into a fuel filter room and an adjacent storeroom that had sea bags in it, said Cmdr. Dora Lockwood, a U.S. Third Fleet spokeswoman in San Diego.

Crewmembers “were able to isolate the gasket leak.” The fuel was covered with firefighting foam in accordance with standard operating procedures. Officials were initially estimating that 10,000 gallons of fuel may have leaked, she said, though they were verifying the amount.

The carrier was operating closer to shore and had to maneuver to 50 nautical miles from the shore, as required under the Maritime Pollution Act, in order to discharge the fuel overboard “to prevent it from being a further hazard to the ship or the crew, eliminating the potential for fire or explosion,” officials said in the statement.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/12/navy_aviationfuelleak120508/%2e