Chris Kjelgaard/MIAMI
New safety regulations targeting widespread fatigue and damage tolerance will be introduced in the USA next year and will almost certainly lead to the quick retirement of many older commercial jets, such as the Boeing 747-100.
The co-chair of the FAA advisory working group (AWG) on the issue, United Parcel Service (UPS) manager of aircraft engineering, Jim Foucault, told Cargo Facts Annual Aircraft Symposium that the AWG has completed its advisory circular on the "next big rule" and has sent it to the FAA. Now the agency will review it and develop regulatory language, which Foucault says will include reasonable implementation time.
He says the new rules will be an extension of the ageing aircraft regulatory work that dates from the infamous Aloha Airlines incident in 1988, when a high-time Boeing 737-200 lost much of its forward upper fuselage in flight over Hawaii. He says operators must start "very detailed planning" to ensure their aircraft maintenance is adequate to meet the new rules as aircraft near their design service life expectations.
"In my opinion this will drive up [the costs of] maintenance programmes and record-keeping requirements in a very major way," he says, adding that he believes many operators will have to amend their maintenance programmes. Even so, the new rules may quickly make the cost of maintaining ageing aircraft prohibitive and Foucault forecasts that sizeable numbers of older jets will soon be retired and "go into the desert".
Source: Flight International
