Trevor Collins

Think 50 gallons out of a total capacity of 13,000 gallons.

It's essentially empty.

You then have old wiring that is running through these tanks, but these are low voltage sensor wires and therefore usually not a concern for ignition.

They aren't gonna arc into some sort of meaningful explosive kind of way, but they are chafed in places and we noticed in hindsight that there was exposed wire throughout this plane.

now reports suggest that the hour delay that the passengers were aboard in this summer heat led to increased temperatures in the cabin and in the fuel tank so remember even though it was something mundane and had nothing to do with the plane the plane was filled with passengers and sitting at the gate for about an hour maybe even on the tarmac for about an hour and so you have the ac running because the passengers need to stay cool

And that AC has heat exchangers.

The air conditioning packs are actually located underneath the center wing fuel tank.

And so as you're getting pumped with cold air, that heat has to go somewhere.

You pull the heat out of the air and blow coal.

How is it there?

That's a great question.

And it might not be there anymore.

on newer planes.

That's true.

So all that heat getting collected right there in this area.

Meanwhile, it's also still hot outside.

So all this is going on and the residual fuel within that tank is starting to vaporize under this heat.

So then after takeoff, this wouldn't be an issue, by the way.

There are some more freak incidents that happen.

So soon after takeoff, some unfortunate circumstances kind of sealed their fate.