THE US NATIONAL Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has added safety enhancements to commercial passenger-aircraft fuel tanks to its list of "most wanted" transportation-safety improvements.
In late 1996, the NTSB urged the US Federal Aviation Administration to require air carriers to reduce the possibility of build-ups of explosive vapours in fuel tanks. The FAA has yet to respond.
The advocated fuel-system modifications grow out of the NTSB's investigation of the crash on 17 July, 1996, of a Trans World Airlines Boeing 747 into the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island.
Although the probe is not expected to be closed until later this year, the evidence points not to terrorism but to a "catastrophic mechanical failure" connected with the fuel tanks.
The NTSB's lengthy list of recommendations includes enhanced insulation around certain fuel tanks and operational changes involving ground refuelling.
Other recommendations on the "most-wanted" list include the need for improved flight-data recorders, airport-runway incursion enhancements, wake-turbulence initiatives, Mode C intruder conflict alert in terminal areas, more pilot background checks, aircraft icing initiatives and required installation of fire-detection and suppression equipment in Class D cargo holds.
Source: Flight International
