Peter B Van Campen wrote:
I have friend that was a long-haul trans pacific 747-400 captain. Fun fact: the 747-400 has fuel tanks in the horizontal stabilizer (tail) that hold 10,000 pounds of Jet-A. Modern jets have computerizd fuel systems that talk to the 're-fueler' system; it tells the refueler how much fuel to deliver and it sorts it out into the many onboard tanks as determined by the Flight Eng or Co-Pilot. What amazes me about these fuel-starvation incidents is that the personel don't see them coming in time to make a 'powered' landing!
There was one flight, that was pretty much running on fumes when it reached the Azores. A wrong part caused a fuel leak in an engine and then crew error sent most of the remaining fuel into the bad engine, where it quickly disappeared.