Transubstantiation

[kickaha]

The Air France crash is, no matter how you look at it, tragic and sad. Reading the reports of the debris being found, however, it struck me...

Why is it always oil cans?!? It seems like every time I hear about a flight going down over water, and rescuers going out looking for wreckage, they find: orange life vests, floating fuel, and oil cans. The first two make sense, but WHY OIL CANS?!? What *possible* reason can an airliner have for carrying oil cans, mid-flight, in such a way that they're likely to be torn off and scattered? What the hell, does the copilot get tasked with topping off Engine #3 midflight because it looks a bit low? God knows they're screwed if the Check Engine light comes on, but really now...

I mean, is this like the Universal Rule of Vomiting, that no matter what you eat, it comes up as carrots? Are these oil cans some mystical trade to the netherworld, where we send them luggage, and they send back empty oil cans? WTF?


Oil cans? *REALLY*?

Comments

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

Oil cans float. If there *are* oil cans aboard and the plane breaks up over (or under) the water, oil cans are among the few things that won't end up at the bottom.

[kaneda-khan.livejournal.com]

Airlines have been hedging oil prices changes using futures contracts. Obviously they're covering shorts and wisely chose a just-in-time inventory system that could deliver the oil anywhere within hours.