Flight/Planes

BBC News - Plane dumps fuel over schools near Los Angeles airport
Plane dumps fuel over Los Angeles schools

Very odd story. If the the flight path diagram in the story is correct, the decision to dump fuel was made just minutes before touch down, and at a relatively low altitude. The flight was going to Shanghai, so they knew they had a problem before turning back to the mainland. Looks like they got maybe twenty miles out to sea, would have made more sense to dump fuel out there. Will be interesting to see if the FAA determines if the crew made an error in judgement or just got boxed in and had to make the best of a bad, and maybe getting worse, situation.
 
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Saw this on the news last night. Explanation I heard was they never reached the recommended level for dumping and had to just go for it. They were dumping all the way back to the airport. Happened soon after take off from what the news was last night. This was a fairly early on report so I don't know if the facts are correct from my station.
 
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Saw this on the news last night. Explanation I heard was they never reached the recommended level for dumping and had to just go for it. They were dumping all the way back to the airport. Happened soon after take off from what the news was last night. This was a fairly early on report so I don't know if the facts are correct from my station.

Maybe they ingested a bird and were flying on one engine. Tough to do with a full load of fuel/passengers, rate of climb would have been slow.
 
Common practice for the FAA to issue "Notice to Airmen" (NOTAMs) to advice them of military testing or other activities in defined airspace.
I've seen them do it before. Just tripped across it and thought I'd add on! :)