Navy Copter Spills Fuel in Reservoir
About 100 gallons of jet fuel spilled into the lower Otay Reservoir Thursday morning when a Navy helicopter had to make an emergency landing, a county Health Services Department spokeswoman reported.
During a routine water landing training at Otay Lakes, an H-3 Navy helicopter lost power after the pilot shut off one of its engines and the second engine failed, said Ken Mitchell, public affairs officer for the Naval Air Station at North Island. While making a “hard” landing in the reservoir and taxiing to a boat ramp, the helicopter released the JP-5 jet engine fuel into the water, Mitchell said.
“Some jet fuel did spill into the reservoir,” Mitchell said, “but it’s something like gasoline so it breaks up very quickly and there is no problem with contamination.”
San Diego water officials agreed that the spill would not affect the reservoir’s supply, which does provide drinking water, since the light fuel spread over the water and evaporated quickly without mixing with the water.
Although normal water treatment processing will handle any contamination that may occur, as a precautionary measure water sampling will be conducted, the county health spokeswoman said.
The crew of the helicopter escaped injury in the emergency landing, but the helicopter did sustain some minor structural damage, Mitchell said.
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