Would it have been possible to re-fuel the planes in the air?
In Die Hard 2 (1990), because of the terrorist situation, the planes are told to stay in their holding pattern until the situation is sorted out. It gets worse because some of the planes are low on fuel.
Colonel Stuart tapped all communications, and gave them a warning, so the ground team can't talk to the planes.
Would it have been possible to make an external call to someone higher up in the government, and get the military to help re-fuel the planes in the air?
Best Answer
Generally speaking, most likely no. Refueling in mid-air requires special equipment on both the giver and receiver for this process to work, and it looks like most commercial planes do not have this equipment.
Aerial fueling with other aircrafts
- Civilian aircraft: Commercial and private airplanes are not designed for air-to-air refueling.
how-do-airplanes-refuel-in-the-air
This makes sense from a logistics perspective. Most commercial airlines generally don't have the need to refuel midair, and carrying around the extra equipment can be heavy and costly.
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Is it possible to refuel a plane in the air?
Aerial refueling, or air-to-air refueling (AAR), transfers fuel from a tanker to another aircraft (the \u201creceiving\u201d airplane) in mid-flight. These \u201cgas stations in the sky\u201d can keep aircraft aloft for amazing amounts of time and, thus, distances. It's a critical force multiplier for mission planning and execution.Can a 747 be refueled in the air?
The specially modified B747s that fly the president are capable of aerial refueling, and the crews maintain proficiency in this skill. The direct answer to your question is that it is possible, but the information is not released. The range of a 747 depends on the type of 747.What happens if a plane runs out of fuel in the air?
Fuel is a must for an aircraft. Without fuel, the engines won't work. If the plane runs out of fuel while in the air, the plane must be refuelled. Otherwise, the plane will crash.Planes use Air as Fuel
More answers regarding would it have been possible to re-fuel the planes in the air?
Answer 2
Commercial aircraft are not designed to refuel in air
In-air refueling requires a specially fitted aircraft to receive the fuel from the tanker. In addition pilots require specialist training to approach close enough to the tanker to use the refueling equipment
Answer 3
Refueling midair doesn't work unless a special receptacle is built into the receiving airplane.
In truth, the Die Hard 2 situation would have taken care of itself.
They wouldn't run out of gas
As airplanes ran low on fuel (or simply, as they sensed which way the wind was blowing, and it's an airplane, they have instruments for that), the pilots would have said "Frak this felgercarb" and gone somewhere else.
By "low on fuel" I mean SOP is to have a divert/alternate airport already selected, such as Frederick ;), BWI, National, Winchester etc, or ideally another major airport that is an operating base for that airline or partner. They know how much fuel it takes to reach their divert airport, and to make one missed approach/go-around there and then land -- without invading their fuel reserve.
So they'd break out of the hold before that fuel point and go land at their alternate. If they missed approach at their alternate for a reason likely to repeat itself (e.g. crosswinds), they'd declare an emergency and go to a third airport, and to hell with customs and immigration!
Bad Guy doesn't have control of every airport. Also, military airports are usually available for emergency flights.
They wouldn't crash into the ground
The pilots would notice the ground coming up faster than expected, and go "oh hell no" and punch TO/GA. They'd then get on the radio and warn everyone else, and aviation radios aren't full duplex, so ATC couldn't have shut down plane-plane comms. Even if one aircraft managed to fireball, certainly no other aircraft would attempt that landing at that point, and certainly not ILS.
At that point, planes would've treated Dulles as cootie and taken their business elsewhere. The Northeast Corridor is a fantastic place to have that problem, because you have National, BWI, Philly, Newark and the NYC airports, all well connected via Amtrak's 125/150 mph Corridor service from Boston to Richmond, which gets a lot of people home, or easily to connecting flights at BWI or PHL (which have good Amtrak-air connections).
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