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FAA pressed to act on airliner fuel tank safety

Posted on: Wednesday, 13 July 2005, 15:36 CDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. aviation officials should quickly order airlines to reduce the risks of fuel tank explosions like the one that brought down TWA Flight 800 off the coast of New York almost nine years ago, U.S. transport safety officials said on Wednesday.

TWA Flight 800, headed to Paris, crashed shortly after taking off from New York's John F. Kennedy International airport, killing all 230 people aboard the Boeing 747 jumbo jet. The National Transportation Safety Board determined the cause was an explosion in the center wing fuel tank.

A Thai Airways Boeing 737 in March, 2001, exploded on the ground killing one person, and investigators attributed the cause to flammable fuel/air mixtures in the center wing tank.

After the TWA crash, the NTSB urged the Federal Aviation Administration to order airlines to immediately change operating procedures to cut the chance of the tanks exploding as well as require aircraft design changes, which would take longer.

While the acting NTSB chairman, Mark Rosenker, said fuel tank explosions were "rare events," he pressed the FAA to stop dragging its feet, particularly since the agency said early in 2004 it was close to proposing design changes.

"I urge the FAA to act quickly on our urgent recommendation to implement airline operational actions," he said in a statement. "I would remind everyone that we are still awaiting issuance by the FAA of a proposed rule announced 17 months ago that would require inerting of airliner fuel tanks."

Onboard air conditioning units located beneath center fuel tanks can heat the fuel when operated while aircraft are parked and raise the risk of creating flammable vapor.

The NTSB suggested that airlines could cool planes on the ground with externally supplied air, a recommendation passed on to carriers by the FAA. However, an FAA study last year found only about 6 percent rely exclusively on ground-based air conditioning, according to the NTSB.

An FAA spokesman said the agency, in conjunction with the Department of Transportation, was working to propose rules for neutralizing fuel risks, and said Boeing Co. was already outfitting new aircraft with flammability reduction systems.

"The ultimate solution is inerting and we have that rule in the works and we want to get it out the door as quickly as we can," said FAA spokesman Les Dorr. "It is better to have a proposed rule that is correct and makes sense than to have one that gets out the door too early."

He also noted that ground-based cooling systems were only useful in some instances and were not available at all airports.

Source: REUTERS

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