Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 161; Flight Crew Type 9490
Situational Awareness
No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy
I was recently dispatched from [a West Coast airport] on a northern random route to Paris. The B767 was fueled with Jet A; which has a minimum temperature limit of -37 degrees C. The coldest enroute fuel temperature from the flight plan remarks the dispatcher gave us was -38 degrees C; lower than our limit. This essentially required us to ignore the speeds and altitudes we were forecast to fly in order to keep our fuel temperature above the limit. The SAT at 64N on our route of flight actually reached -70 degrees C; pretty darn cold. If [we are] going to fly these northern latitudes in this aircraft; it needs to provide the aircrews with some minimum polar training; equip the aircraft with a polar suit in the event of a diversion (how will the first officer do a walk around in minus 26 degrees; which was the temperature at one of our diversion alternates; CYYQ?); and provide aircrews with the minimum fuel freeze point for the fuel loaded. The operation as currently conducted is not entirely safe.
International Air Carrier B767 Captain reported he was concerned about the safety of his airline's operations in the far Northern routes to Europe.