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FAA: Changes will be considered in 747s
Action in response to NTSB recommendations after TWA 800 crash
December 3, 1997
Web posted at: 10:42 p.m. EST (0342 GMT)WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday that it is considering requiring modifications in Boeing 747 jets to reduce the possibility of center fuel tank explosions.
Those recommendations were among a list of changes requested, on an "urgent" basis, by the National Transportation Safety Board more than a year ago in the wake of the crash of TWA Flight 800, which investigators suspect may have been felled by a fuel tank explosion.
But most of the modifications are still at least six months away, and the FAA has rejected several other changes that the NTSB requested.
The NTSB investigates airline crashes, while the FAA regulates the airline industry. The NTSB can recommend changes to the FAA but cannot mandate them.
CIA amination of the TWA Flight 800 explosion 698K/21 sec./320x240
QuickTime movieIn the near term, the FAA is expected to order mandatory inspections of center fuel tanks for structural, plumbing and wiring problems. And FAA Administrator Jane Garvey, in a letter to NTSB Chairman James Hall, said a "fast track" advisory committee would be created to study specific ways to decrease the risk of center fuel tank explosions.
The committee would include aviation industry experts and representatives from consumer and union groups, according to Garvey. It would be given six months to return with recommendations so that the FAA could "make appropriate judgment and decisions on further action expeditiously," she wrote.
One possibility to be studied would be the installation of systems that insert nitrogen into empty tanks, to replace explosive vapors, and the addition of insulation between heat-generating equipment on the jet and fuel tanks, the letter said.
However, Garvey said in her letter that the FAA has rejected an NTSB recommendation that certain levels of fuel be kept in center tanks and that systems be installed to monitor fuel tank temperatures.
The NTSB suggested that refueling the tanks before takeoff with cooler fuel would decrease the volatility of fuel vapors, and that keeping the fuel level higher would reduce the vulnerability to explosion. But the FAA concluded these measures would provide no significant benefit.
The FAA also said temperature monitors in the fuel tanks would not be helpful because there is no "practical" way for the pilot to reduce the temperature. The monitor would just be another gauge for the crew to watch in an already crowded cockpit, and the wiring inside the tank "would add another possible source of tank ignition," the FAA said.
TWA Flight 800, bound from New York to Paris, exploded on July 17, 1996, in the skies over Long Island Sound, killing all 230 people on board.
Though no final cause of the crash has been determined, NTSB investigators suspect that it could have resulted from an explosion of fuel vapors that built up in the center fuel tank, possibly sparked by the plane's electrical wiring.
In November, the FAA ordered airlines to install new equipment to shield wiring around fuel pumps in 747s.
Related sites:
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- National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
- FAA Office of Accident Investigation - Federal Aviation Administration
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