Barack Obama's Limo Breaks Down Taken By Tow Truck

The United States President, Barack Obama's first visit to Israel was marked by a totally unexpected and rather funny incident. The President's car, the armoured limousine, broke down without warning. The incident took place when the car was on its way from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport to Jerusalem.

The Presidential limo, also sometimes called ‘The Beast' came to a halt in the middle of the road to everyone's surprise. The reason, it turn turns out, was the use of wrong fuel. The person who filled up the car's fuel tank mistakenly filled diesel instead of petrol. Find images from the scene of incident below.

Obama's Limo Breaks Down

Obama's Limo Breaks Down

On a three-day tour of Israel and the Palestinian Territories, the American Presidential party faced an unexpected problem when the Presidential limo broke down due to wrong use of fuel.

Obama's Limo Breaks Down

Fortunately for Obama, he was spared the of any embarrassment since the incident took place before he had actually arrived.

Obama's Limo Breaks Down

Obama continued on as per scheduled in a back up limousine, a procedure the Secret Service always maintains for cases such as these.

Obama's Limo Breaks Down

The downed limo, meanwhile, was taken away by a local tow truck service, who found the whole incident very funny.

Obama's Limo Breaks Down

So, now the question arises. What happens when a petrol engined car is filled with diesel and vice versa.

Obama's Limo Breaks Down

The simple answer is, it comes to a halt because both engines function very differently.

Obama's Limo Breaks Down

A petrol engine works by igniting the vapourised fuel using a spark plug.

Obama's Limo Breaks Down

A diesel engine has no spark plug and instead ignites the fuel by injecting it into hot compressed air. This is because diesel does not evaporate at normal temperatures like petrol does.

Obama's Limo Breaks Down

Hence, when either of the two fuels goes into the other engine they simply do not ignite and may also end up damaging the engines.

Most Read Articles

English
Article Published On: Thursday, March 21, 2013, 17:18 [IST]
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X