NTSB: Fuel Tank Safety Still an Issue Decade After TWA 800
By Alan Levin
WASHINGTON — A recent fuel tank explosion on an airplane in India prompted crash investigators to demand Thursday that aviation regulators take action to prevent similar explosions in the USA.
Investigators said that the May 4 incident on a Boeing 727, in which a fuel tank exploded on the ground in Bangalore, is similar to the kind of explosion that brought down TWA Flight 800 a decade ago off the coast of New York.
The National Transportation Safety Board is assisting in the investigation. NTSB investigators often assist other countries in crash inquiries.
No one was hurt in the Bangalore crash, but the plane’s wing had major damage and would have broken off if it had been airborne, the agency said.
NTSB acting Chairman Mark Rosenker said that the accident in India shows that, despite dozens of steps to improve fuel tank safety, more needs to be done. The safety board has called for installation of devices that remove oxygen from fuel tanks, making explosions virtually impossible.
“Every day that we are out here and don’t do anything, we increase the chances of an accident,” Rosenker said.
The fuel tank issue is one of the few causes of a major aviation accident in recent decades that has not been fully addressed by mandatory improvements, according to the NTSB.
Flight 800 exploded a few minutes after takeoff on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 people aboard. The Boeing 747 broke into pieces and showered the ocean with burning jet fuel and debris. At first officials feared a bomb may have been planted on the jet, but NTSB investigators realized within weeks that the jet’s fuel tank had been the source of the explosion.
Later that year, the NTSB recommended that fuel tanks be made in such a way that they are impervious to sparks.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates the aviation industry, initially said mandating such devices was too expensive. The agency reversed itself in 2002 after research showed new designs were far less expensive and easier to install. Boeing, which had participated in the research, announced it would begin protecting fuel tanks on newly built jets.
However, the FAA’s proposal has run into a blizzard of criticism that has pitted it against airlines and European aviation agencies. The critics say that the measure will be costly and is not needed.
“The analysis that we got back is this is not necessary,” said Basil Barimo, vice president of the Air Transport Association, the airline’s trade group. “We have achieved the level of safety necessary.”
Including the explosion in India, there have been six instances since 1989 in which fuel tanks on passenger and military aircraft exploded. Investigators could not pinpoint what triggered the Flight 800 explosion, but they discovered hundreds of ways a tank could ignite.
(c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.