New US regulations stemming from the fatal Valujet Airlines crash in 1996 come into force in four months' time, and have driven diversified US company Pacific Scientific to develop a new product for transporting oxygen bottles and generators.
Department of Transportation regulation HM224B, mandating greatly improved protection for such devices, was approved by the US Federal Aviation Administration in 2007 for airlines with a two-year compliance period.
The rule, which takes effect on 1 October, is designed to prevent tragedies like the loss of the Valujet McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 in the Everglades with the loss of 110 lives. Investigators believe an oxygen generator being improperly carried in the aircraft was actuated and caused a catastrophic fire.
Pacific Scientific (hall 2, F56) based in Duarte, California, says US industry is faced with providing an initial 10,000 compliant containers and it has announced availability of its OxPax container, which meets the requirement.
It says: "OxPax offers an innovative, robust, lightweight, patent-pending thermally protective design which exceeds DoT HM224B requirements. An additional benefit identified is the mitigation of operator transport costs by providing a lighter overall package weight."
The product was developed by the company's Aviation Mobility division in Charlotte, North Carolina, which provides passenger medical-use and compressed breathing oxygen to aircraft operators.
Pacific Scientific group president Greg Beason says: "We actually service oxygen bottles but we saw nobody stepping up to deal with this regulation. It was a customer need and so we decided to step up."
The rule currently only applies to US operators, but Beason says it remains to be seen whether Europe and other regions will follow the US lead.
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Source: Flight Daily News
