Proposed Fuel Tank Rules Meet Fierce Resistance

New and existing airplanes should be equipped with inerting systems in their fuel tanks to prevent an explosion like the kind that destroyed a TWA B747 in 1996, and which also occurred on a B727 in India last month. “We have to eliminate the flammability potential and then we won’t be talking about this issue any more,” said Mark Rosenker, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), at a June 29 press conference. The aviation industry is coming up on the 10th anniversary of the loss of TWA Flight 800 on July 17, 1996, and the NTSB held the press conference to reiterate its early recommendation that fuel tanks be inerted. The industry is mounting fierce resistance. Many operators have declared that the requirement to retrofit and provide maintenance for inerting systems on hundreds of in-service jets is cost-prohibitive. More