Sun shining through bottle of water causes plane fire

[Greg McDonald]

Not heard of this one happening before:

A BOTTLE of water caused a fire in the cockpit of a Airbus A320 passenger aircraft as it was about to land at a Queensland airport.
According to an Australian Transport Safety Bureau report, the pilots were lining up on the runway when they smelled smoke last month.

It was coming from the cover of a log carried in the cockpit to record inflight defects in mechanical, navigation, electrical, hydraulic and radio equipment, The Courier-Mail reports.

The incident was reported to the bureau, which investigated and concluded a water bottle was to blame.

"The sun was shining through a water bottle at the side of the cockpit," the ATSB report said.

"The bottle was focusing the sunlight like a magnifying glass on the cover of the cabinet defect log, which began burning."

The bureau did not say whether the water in the bottle was used to douse the fire.

[Adrian B]

I have to say that I find this a little hard to believe. Based on this assumption, I shouldn't be holding a bottle of water whilst driving a car for fear of third degree burns???

[Owen H]

There is a story of it happening on a 767 many years ago, with the bottle causing the seat to smoulder, but not catch fire. Bottles are most definately not left on the seat now! (Although there are other reasons for that too).

How true it is, well, I don't know!

[Philip Argy]

The incident was reported to the bureau, which investigated and concluded a water bottle was to blame.


Where on the ATSB website is the report of this investigation? I can't see anything there to substantiate this story and my limited knowledge of optics suggests that the dimesnions of a bottle of water renders it incapable of focussing the sun's rays akin to the convex lens in a magnifying glass. I suppose a near empty bottle with a concave base could plausibly approximate such a lens but I'd like to see any report that reached such a conclusion.

[Daniel M]

:o

[Matthew H]

Where on the ATSB website is the report of this investigation? I can't see anything there to substantiate this story and my limited knowledge of optics suggests that the dimesnions of a bottle of water renders it incapable of focussing the sun's rays akin to the convex lens in a magnifying glass. I suppose a near empty bottle with a concave base could plausibly approximate such a lens but I'd like to see any report that reached such a conclusion.

What if the bottle is squashed or deformed in such a way to produce a focal point onto a bit of paper. Sounds like we need the Mythbusters crew for this one.

[NickN]

Philip hit the nail on the head, water disburses light not focuses it. Sunlight hitting a bottle of water would actually act like a filter and weaken the intensity of the light.

As mentioned the plastic itself may be capable of causing this but again, the plastic is flat not convex so there is no real way of focusing the light to a fine enough point. The corrugated section on the bottle is convex, but too much so and again this would push the light in too many directions and not be focused enough.

[Craig Sandford]

Umm. A few many assumptions here. Who said the water bottle was plastic? It could have been glass. Who said there was water inside it? Are you looking at a first hand report, or has someone interpreted what has been said?

I know it mentions "bottle of water" in the quote, but I'd want to verify that, as it just could have been the authors way of saying water bottle.

Sorry - too many years of receiving IT problems that are usually reported without the slightest amount of thinking at the user end. I take everything with a grain of salt.

[NickN]

Sometimes all you can do Craig is put forward a hypothetical scenario based on what information is available in the article. Of course it could have been glass, could also have been made from enriched uranium for all we know. We are just theorizing, nothing more.

[Brenden S]

Where is Mythbusters when you need them!!!

[NickN]

I might take some time this weekend with a bottle of Mount Franklin and see what I can manage to set alight, if anything.

If I do manage to get a book on fire, will they ban water bottles from aircraft to avoid possible in-flight fires?:p:D

[Bill S]

Where is Mythbusters when you need them!!!

I'm pretty sure that you don't need the Mythbusters budget and/or talent to purchase a plastic bottle of water and fiddle with its shape to see if you can focus the exiting light into a spot.

[Adrian B]

Nick, if you cannot prove the myth, dont forget to blow something up Mythbusters style

[NickN]

Adrian, I'll do my best!