Outside Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5, during the turnround of a British Airways jet aircraft, the refueller's heavy fuel nozzle is plugged into the airfield's underground reservoirs to pump some 109 tons of Jet A1 aviation fuel flowing at a rate of 3,000 litres a minute, to be uplifted into the wing tanks of a Boeing 747-300, a typical quantity of extra fuel for this aeroplane bound for Los Angeles. From writer Alain de Botton's book project "A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary" (2009).
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