US unveils new rule to prevent fuel tank explosions
A device to prevent airplane fuel tanks from exploding must be installed on certain passenger jets and cargo planes, federal officials said on Wednesday, 12 years after such an explosion destroyed TWA Flight 800, killing all 230 people aboard.
The new safety requirement, announced by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, applies to new passenger and cargo planes that have centre fuel tanks like TWA 800, a Boeing 747, which exploded over the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island on July 17, 1996, after takeoff from New York's Kennedy Airport.
The rule also requires airlines to retrofit 2,730 existing Airbus and Boeing passenger planes built since 1991 with centre wing fuel tanks with the changes over the next nine years. 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 Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chairman Mark Rosenker, who joined Ms Peters at a news conference at the safety board's training facility here. 'This is the big one for us as it relates to important solutions for fuel tank safety.'
The change brings to a close a long and troubled chapter in federal aviation safety. The NTSB identified the cause of the explosion - the ignition of oxygen in a partially empty fuel tank that had been sitting for hours in the sun before takeoff - not long after the accident. But the FBI initially thought the explosion was the result of a bomb and it was unclear for a time which agency - the FBI or the NTSB - was in charge of the investigation.
The Federal Aviation Administration proposed a rule to prevent future explosions in 2005, but the aviation industry balked, saying the cost was too high. The final rule requires aircraft manufacturers and passenger airlines to install devices that replace oxygen, which is highly explosive, with inert nitrogen in fuel tanks as they empty.
The new safety requirement, announced by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, applies to new passenger and cargo planes that have centre fuel tanks like TWA 800, a Boeing 747, which exploded over the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island on July 17, 1996, after takeoff from New York's Kennedy Airport.
The rule also requires airlines to retrofit 2,730 existing Airbus and Boeing passenger planes built since 1991 with centre wing fuel tanks with the changes over the next nine years. 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 Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chairman Mark Rosenker, who joined Ms Peters at a news conference at the safety board's training facility here. 'This is the big one for us as it relates to important solutions for fuel tank safety.'
The change brings to a close a long and troubled chapter in federal aviation safety. The NTSB identified the cause of the explosion - the ignition of oxygen in a partially empty fuel tank that had been sitting for hours in the sun before takeoff - not long after the accident. But the FBI initially thought the explosion was the result of a bomb and it was unclear for a time which agency - the FBI or the NTSB - was in charge of the investigation.
The Federal Aviation Administration proposed a rule to prevent future explosions in 2005, but the aviation industry balked, saying the cost was too high. The final rule requires aircraft manufacturers and passenger airlines to install devices that replace oxygen, which is highly explosive, with inert nitrogen in fuel tanks as they empty.