Blue ice (precipitation)

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Blue ice in the context of aviation is frozen sewage material leaked mid-flight from commercial aircraft lavatory waste systems, a biowaste mixture of human waste and liquid disinfectant that freezes at high altitude. The name comes from the blue color of the disinfectant. Airlines are not allowed to dump their waste tanks in mid-flight, and pilots have no mechanism by which to do so; however, leaks can occur.

Danger of ground impact[edit]




Danger to aircraft[edit]

Blue ice can also be dangerous to the aircraft itself; the National Transportation Safety Board has recorded three very similar incidents where waste from lavatories caused damage to the leaking aircraft.[6][7][8] All involved Boeing 727s, and in all cases waste from a leaking lavatory hit one of the engines, mounted at the rear of the aircraft, causing a power loss.[6][7][8] The flights made safe emergency landings with the two remaining engines. Nobody was injured. Only one report specifically mentions ice,[7] while another mentions "soft body FOD" (foreign object damage),[8] indicating that in this case the "blue fluid" was not frozen.

In popular culture[edit]



  1. ^ Gumz, Jondi (February 12, 2003). "Another mysterious chunk of blue ice hits". Santa Cruz Sentinel. Retrieved 2007-01-04. The Living in Everyday Earth Web site reports there have been at least 27 documented blue-ice incidents nationally in the past 24 years.  Archived February 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ^ Frozen Pee Anyone? BBC
  5. ^ [1] BBC

External links[edit]