The only fire extinguishers that should be used around our airplanes are Halon and perhaps CO2. The ABC fire extinguishers typically found in the stores are highly corrosive.
We had an airplane come to the shop for its first CI. It had been built by one of the "pro shops", whose name I will leave off. We discovered that the 4 spar bolts were missing as per the Van's SB, which there is no excuse for, as the airplane was less than a year old. In the process of opening up the flooring to insert the bolts, we noticed a horrible amount of corrosion on everything, including spar botls, trim motor, trim springs, and all metal screws throughout the interior, and even the rear spar bolts. The pictures would make you cringe.
There was also a very fine powder throughout the interior of the aircraft, which I thought could have been fiberglass sanding residue. The corrosion looked like someone had spilled a bucket of acid inside the airplane, so we encouraged the owner to reach out to the builder.
He was informed that there had been a fire on the first engine start due to a disconnected fuel line and a fire extinguisher was used to put the fire out. Obviously the wrong type of extinguisher!
I spoke to an arson investigator today who has a metallurgist on staff. He says the airplane should not be flown without being completely disassembled and throughly cleaned, as the dust from the fire extinguisher is now everywhere and it is extremely corrosive.
I can only imagine that some of the dust has also penetrated into the avionics and can only guess as to its impact down the road. The dust is as fine as flour. I posted some pics on my FB page. https://www.facebook.com/vic.syracuse.7 or this link https://baselegphotos.shutterfly.com/pictures#n_5
Vic
We had an airplane come to the shop for its first CI. It had been built by one of the "pro shops", whose name I will leave off. We discovered that the 4 spar bolts were missing as per the Van's SB, which there is no excuse for, as the airplane was less than a year old. In the process of opening up the flooring to insert the bolts, we noticed a horrible amount of corrosion on everything, including spar botls, trim motor, trim springs, and all metal screws throughout the interior, and even the rear spar bolts. The pictures would make you cringe.
There was also a very fine powder throughout the interior of the aircraft, which I thought could have been fiberglass sanding residue. The corrosion looked like someone had spilled a bucket of acid inside the airplane, so we encouraged the owner to reach out to the builder.
He was informed that there had been a fire on the first engine start due to a disconnected fuel line and a fire extinguisher was used to put the fire out. Obviously the wrong type of extinguisher!
I spoke to an arson investigator today who has a metallurgist on staff. He says the airplane should not be flown without being completely disassembled and throughly cleaned, as the dust from the fire extinguisher is now everywhere and it is extremely corrosive.
I can only imagine that some of the dust has also penetrated into the avionics and can only guess as to its impact down the road. The dust is as fine as flour. I posted some pics on my FB page. https://www.facebook.com/vic.syracuse.7 or this link https://baselegphotos.shutterfly.com/pictures#n_5
Vic
Last edited: