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FAA Wants Fuel Safety Systems on Jets NewsMax.com WiresWASHINGTON – The government will order airlines to install a system to reduce the chance of fuel tank explosions like the one that downed a TWA Boeing 747 in 1996, a Federal Aviation Administration official said Tuesday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said older planes would be retrofitted with the device and new planes would have them as standard equipment. The FAA wants to speed the regulatory process, but it's unclear when the final rule will take effect because a cost-benefit analysis still has to be conducted, the official said. The order will affect large passenger jets: about 3,800 Boeing and Airbus aircraft operated by domestic airlines. The agency scheduled a news conference Tuesday to announce its move. TWA Flight 800 crashed off the coast of Long Island, N.Y., on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 people aboard. The National Transportation Safety Board blamed the accident on an explosion. It said vapors in a partly empty fuel tank probably were ignited by a spark in the wiring. The accident prompted FAA scientists to step up research aimed at eliminating potential ignition sources for such explosions and reducing the flammability of vapors in fuel tanks. The device they came up with pumps nitrogen-enriched air into fuel tanks, reducing the oxygen in fuel vapors and lessening the chance of an explosion. In 2001, a government-industry task force concluded it would be too expensive, up to $20 billion, to retrofit airliners with the equipment necessary to pump nonflammable nitrogen into fuel tanks. The FAA estimates the cost between $600 million and $700 million, the official said.
© 2004 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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