arizona republicsat, october 30, 1999
FAA alters fuel-tank rules
Changes aim to cut chance of explosion
By Sylvia Adcock
Newsday
The Federal Aviation Administration will 'require design changes in aircraft built in the future to minimize buildup of flammable vapors in the fuel tanks, a measure that stems from the 1996 explosion of TWA Flight 800.
1 And in a plan that will affect 6,000 commercial aircraft, the agency will tell manufacturers to spend a year revalidating the designs of the fuel-tank systems and developing mandatory inspection and maintenance procedures to prevent fuel-tank explosions.
"This action represents a ftindamental change in how fuel tanks are designed, maintained and operated," FAA Administrator Jane Garvey said Thursday.
The proposed rules, which are expected to take effect next year, will affect 36 models of aircraft made by a dozen manufacturers, including most models of Boeing and Airbus planes - the most popular commercial aircraft in the world. Manufacturers will have 12 months to do design reviews and come up with new inspection and maintenance plans, and all new aircraft - either on, the drawing table or the assembly line - will have to comply with new standards to minimize fuel vapors.
On new planes, manufacturers will need to change long-standing designs to keep air-conditioning packs - often located beneath the center fuel tanks - from heating up the vapors to an explosive level. Alternatively, manufacturers could provide ways to prevent catastrophic damage to the plane if a fuel-tank explosion did occur.
The actions come almost three years after the National Transportation Safety Board issued recommendations to keep flammable vapors out of new and existing aircraft. For years, the FAA and the industry have assumed that they could prevent any sparks from entering fuel tanks, making them safe even though they almost always