Ian Blows Up in Fiery Explosion!!!!

So I was flying back from SES NYC yesterday and had an interesting near death experience I'd like to share.

I flew in from NY, landed at Pearson in Toronto, and was in the process of switching to my final flight to Calgary. I got onto my plane, sat down, buckled up my seat belt, and waited....

After a REALLY long time, the captains voice came on.

"Folks, this is your Captain speaking. There appears to be a fuel truck that has flipped over on the runway behind us. We'll need to wait here for a while".

As I sat there, thinking about the fact that I was on a jet aircraft, and how jets are really hot and fiery, and any fuel truck, flipped or not, should try to avoid being behind one, the captain came back on the intercom. Apparently he agreed with my assessment.

"Folks, I think it would be best if we offloaded the plane. Please take your belongings and exit in an orderly manner"

Ummm... OK.

Once we were off, I went and took the picture you see below from my cellphone camera (that's why the quality is so bad - my prized Canon Digital Rebel XT is tucked in the cargo hold of the plane you are looking at.)

Looking into the centre, you can see a yellow fuel truck slightly to the left. Slightly to the right, an identical one is lying on it's side. I don't know if you can see it, but there is a siphon hose between the two, and the good truck is pumping fuel out of the flipped one. You can click on the picture to get a larger picture.

Underneath, you can see the HUGE pool of fuel, and the stuff they have dumped on it to help soak it up!

Now look at the jet to the right and front. That's where I was sitting (seat 19A, actually). Now look at where the jet engines are pointing.

Ouch. I'm very lucky to be here typing this right now, as opposed to being the center of attention at a cremation...

Speaking of which, how the HELL do you flip and dump an airport fuel truck!?!?!?!

You'd think they would have a low CofG and maybe even some safety valves, etc. Maybe they let one of the idiots they use for baggage manhandling drive. Oh, and my luggage came back with my tags missing... Again.

Oh, the joys of flying Air Canada....

Ian