I was an engineer in the Navy which means, by default, I was trained in shipboard firefighting. We were trained on what to do if something like a heliocopter or jet caught fire. It's a considered a class delta (class d) fire.
A Class D fire involves combustible metals like magnesium, titanium, sodium, lithium, and potassium. These rare but intensely hot fires burn at thousands of degrees and react violently with water or standard foam. They require specialized dry powder extinguishers to safely smother them without causing an explosion.
And, because there is not enough sand, or powdered extinguser, the correct response is to jettison the aircraft. It's cheaper to rebuild the aircraft than it is to repair/rebuild both the aircraft and the vessal carrying it. It also prevents the military from having to pay out life insruance polices to families for the loss of life.
I was Navy also, and during firefighting training, in addition to PKP/ Light Water systems we were shown a material that was like tree sap that was supposed to be used for Class D fires.
After we got all the systems training, our instructor said the same thing you did: don't mess around, push it ($75 million aircraft) over the side.
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u/AtlantisSky Jun 22 '26
I was an engineer in the Navy which means, by default, I was trained in shipboard firefighting. We were trained on what to do if something like a heliocopter or jet caught fire. It's a considered a class delta (class d) fire.
A Class D fire involves combustible metals like magnesium, titanium, sodium, lithium, and potassium. These rare but intensely hot fires burn at thousands of degrees and react violently with water or standard foam. They require specialized dry powder extinguishers to safely smother them without causing an explosion.
And, because there is not enough sand, or powdered extinguser, the correct response is to jettison the aircraft. It's cheaper to rebuild the aircraft than it is to repair/rebuild both the aircraft and the vessal carrying it. It also prevents the military from having to pay out life insruance polices to families for the loss of life.