New Rule Looks To Prevent Plane Explosions
[2008-7-22]
Tag : Short Circuit
A device to prevent airplane fuel tanks from exploding must beinstalled on certain passenger jets and cargo planes, federalofficials said Wednesday, 12 years after such an explosiondestroyed TWA Flight 800, killing all 230 people aboard.
The new safety requirement, announced by Transportation SecretaryMary Peters, applies to new passenger and cargo planes that havecenter wing fuel tanks like TWA 800, a Boeing 747, which explodedover the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island on July 17, 1996, aftertakeoff from New York's Kennedy Airport.
The rule also requires airlines to retrofit 2,730 existing Airbusand Boeing passenger planes over the next nine years with centerwing fuel tanks with the changes. The retrofit schedule is based onthe normal aircraft maintenance schedule.
Manufacturers have two years in which to comply with the rule,although Boeing is already making some new planes with the changes.
"We believe this will save lives," said National TransportationSafety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker, who joined Peters at a pressconference at the safety board's training facility here, where TWAFlight 800 has been partially reconstructed from pieces of theaircraft retrieved from the ocean. "This is the big one for us asit relates to important solutions for fuel tank safety."
The change brings to a close a long and troubled chapter in federalaviation safety. The National Transportation Safety Boardidentified the cause of the explosion — the ignition of oxygenin a partially empty fuel tank that had been sitting for hours inthe sun before takeoff — not long after the accident. But theFBI initially thought the explosion was the result of a bomb and itwas unclear for a time which agency — the FBI or the NTSB— was in charge of the investigation.
A device to prevent airplane fuel tanks from exploding must beinstalled on certain passenger jets and cargo planes, federalofficials said Wednesday, 12 years after such an explosiondestroyed TWA Flight 800, killing all 230 people aboard.
The new safety requirement, announced by Transportation SecretaryMary Peters, applies to new passenger and cargo planes that havecenter wing fuel tanks like TWA 800, a Boeing 747, which explodedover the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island on July 17, 1996, aftertakeoff from New York's Kennedy Airport.
The rule also requires airlines to retrofit 2,730 existing Airbusand Boeing passenger planes over the next nine years with centerwing fuel tanks with the changes. The retrofit schedule is based onthe normal aircraft maintenance schedule.
Manufacturers have two years in which to comply with the rule,although Boeing is already making some new planes with the changes.
"We believe this will save lives," said National TransportationSafety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker, who joined Peters at a pressconference at the safety board's training facility here, where TWAFlight 800 has been partially reconstructed from pieces of theaircraft retrieved from the ocean. "This is the big one for us asit relates to important solutions for fuel tank safety."
The change brings to a close a long and troubled chapter in federalaviation safety. The National Transportation Safety Boardidentified the cause of the explosion — the ignition of oxygenin a partially empty fuel tank that had been sitting for hours inthe sun before takeoff — not long after the accident. But theFBI initially thought the explosion was the result of a bomb and itwas unclear for a time which agency — the FBI or the NTSB— was in charge of the investigation.
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