I searched, but it could still be a dupe

www.strategypage.com/gallery/articles/military_photos_20064611181.asp

Interesting.


Thanks to My-Name-Is-John for sending this to me.

Some technician got himself ripped a new asshole.

The cameraman does not look happy.

Kharn

hahaha

Quoted: The cameraman does not look happy. Kharn

if the cameraman was pissed, i'd hate to see the wing commander's face

"Whoops"....

Notice that the CE guys didn't think, "Maybe we should get out of the hangar."

tagged

This happened a couple times at MCAS Tustin about ten years ago.  There was foam halfway across the base.

It just so happened that we had mandatory vaccinations inside of our hanger, which were laid out on tables.  This is obviously not a popular thing for us, and someone pulled the fire alarm and activated the AFFF.  They had to discard the entire supply of vaccinations.

Well that wasn't a cheap mistake.  At least there wasn't a jet in the hanger at the time.

Quoted: Well that wasn't a cheap mistake.  At least there wasn't a jet in the hanger at the time.

Why? The foam is bad for the jets?

Kharn

And, with the proper atmoshheric conditions, the setting sun glinting off a B727 windscreen through an open hangar door can trigger an optical fire sensor resulting in 18 inches of foam in the hangar.

Quoted: Quoted: Well that wasn't a cheap mistake.  At least there wasn't a jet in the hanger at the time. Why? The foam is bad for the jets? Kharn

It's pretty corroisve stuff.

  OOOOOOPS.

One would think there would be a valve somewhere that could have been shut off.  Probably just no one handy that knew where it was.

ETA: www.strategypage.com/gallery/articles/military_photos_200646111814.asp
Think I would have been evacuating the building GTFO about then, if not before.

Quoted:   OOOOOOPS. One would think there would be a valve somewhere that could have been shut off.  Probably just no one handy that knew where it was.

Or by the time they realized there was a problem the valve was ten feet under...water...

I hate it when that happens

It was a test of the foam system.  



May 01, 2006

No place like foam

On TV’s “The A Team,” Col. John “Hannibal” Smith had a catchphrase he liked to dispense whenever his soldiers of fortune successfully completed the mission du jour.

With a smirk and a nourishing haul from his cigar, Hannibal would boast, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

In the Air Force, as in “The A Team,” some feats, it seems, can be gauged in ways you maybe never thought possible.

Chances are you’ve seen the e-mail being circulated — the one illustrating events from hangar 73 at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D. — and its attached PowerPoint presentation titled simply “The Foam Test.”

An April 14 report in the Black Hills Bandit, Ellsworth’s base newspaper, suggests the slideshow, and its depiction of a fire-suppression system gone seemingly haywire, has spread like, well, rapidly expanding fire-snuffing foam throughout the Air Force, her sister services and the national media. (Oh yeah, we’ve got a copy. Check it out.

Ellsworth officials want it known that the incident, actually a planned test of new equipment last August, was conducted properly — and that it yielded a desired a result: They now know it takes just two minutes, not six, for the system to do what’s needed.

That may have been a tough lesson for whoever parked their pickup right outside the hangar. Once the foam swelled, nearing the hangar’s roofline, and those gigantic doors were opened to let some escape, that poor truck was overrun with suds — yessir, inside and out.

One would like to think that such a contingency was considered. Surely, there was a Plan B.

While officials concede the foam rose “higher than needed,” mass distribution of this slideshow “has created a lot of work trying to correct misinformation,” said Capt. Michael G. Johnson, an Ellsworth spokesman.

“The PowerPoint presentation suggests that major mistakes were made,” Johnson said. “To the contrary, the test was an overwhelming success.”

In that case: cigar anyone?

www.airforcetimes.com/content/static/new/slideshow/foam050106.html

I've supervised the testing of a couple of foam systems before. I don't think that was necessary to determine how well it works.

In fact, had I done that the enviromental wackos would have been all over me.

You guys are behind the times I got this over two weeks ago from my kid in the AF.  But I would have to agree that it made it to everybody in the AF in probably 3 days once it hit the first e-mail.