Foam Party! Just Don’t Mind The Helicopters On The Floor…


Foam Party! Just Don’t Mind The Helicopters On The Floor…

When there is something leaking from the hangar bay doors where your multi-million aircraft are stored, it’s always a bad thing. Always. In the case of the Oklahoma National Guard, their bad day was just getting started. It seems that an employee of SimplexGrinnell, the company that maintains the foam fire suppression system, accidentally triggered the system on Tuesday morning, filling the hangar with foam up to fifteen feet deep, covering ten of the eleven UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. The foam isn’t dangerous and is essentially dishwashing soap, but each affected aircraft will have to be inspected before it is returned to service. There was so much foam that as the doors were opened and the hangar allowed to drain, “foam devils” formed on the runway. No word on whether or not there was loud music playing before officials arrived at the hangar.

On the plus side, the hangar hasn’t been cleaner in years!

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Image courtesy of NewsOne6 (OK)

Here’s a video showing just how effective the fire suppression system is.

Source: Dysfunctional Veterans


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14 thoughts on “Foam Party! Just Don’t Mind The Helicopters On The Floor…

  1. 440 6Pac

    What wasn’t said is that in 365 days the boy will have been left SimplexGrinnell exactly one year.
    I’m glad I don’t have to clean up that mess.

    1. BeaverMartin

      Not to get political but, what pray tell does the president have to do with the Oklahoma National Guard? You do realize that the military doesn’t report every single little incident to the POTUS, nor does the CIC get all in the weeds in the military’s business. It something about the internet that makes people want to just type in Obama with anger no matter what the story is about.

      1. BeaverMartin

        And for the record congress controls the budget, not that you don’t know that, but it seems to be a reoccurring misconception on the internet. I guess there are too many sound bites and not enough reading these days.

    1. Jeff Lee

      Basically the foam smothers the fire. And with military weapons and thousands of gallons of aircraft fuel in the building or nearby, you really want to be able to stop any sort of fire from becoming a big fire and/or explosion. So too much is probably not a bad idea.

  2. cyclone03

    Way back when (it was open) the AF had a foam system installed in our hanger at Williams AFB AZ . The Foam tank was 5000 gals mixed 100:1 with water (100 parts water) . After the system was installed a test was required so the 5000 gal tank was by passed with a 55 gal drum. Before the test every door ,switch box and CB panel was sealed with tape. The hanger had a floor space about 300ft X 150 ft. The time came and they set it off,we watched through windows , it looked like a white out in less than 10 secounds. When it was over the entire floor area was covered with 2ft of foam .
    The doors where opened and it was housed out. For the next 2 years every time it rained (not too much in AZ) the concrete taxi way would foam up.

    About the same time a Maintence guy at America West Airlines set off the foam system at Sky Harbor Airport PHX AZ. Doors closed, it covered 3 737’s ,only the tails showed over the foam. A friend and a few of his co-workers got the doors of the Air Craft they where working closed before they got covered , 2 guys on the floor didn’t make it.

  3. bruce

    i guess opening the hangar doors was too much work ,, don’t worry US tax payers will take care of it

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