Congressman Forces the FAA's Slack Hand

On June 28 Congressman Tim Bishop (NY-1) successfully inserted language in the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act to direct the FAA to finalize and implement a final regulation requiring the installation of fuel tank inerting systems on transport aircraft by the end of the year. Almost 11 years after the crash of TWA Flight 800 off the coast of eastern Long Island claimed the lives of all 230 passengers and crew, the FAA still has not implemented regulations requiring airlines to upgrade their existing fleet of over 3,800 commercial airplanes with available, life-saving technology known as fuel tank inerting systems. In 2000 the NTSB determined that the explosion of Flight 800’s center wing fuel tank caused the mid-flight break-up of the plane. The NTSB subsequently recommended the installation of fuel tank inerting systems to correct the problem and FAA R&D eventually approved the technology. In addition to Flight 800, two other subsequent air disasters have been attributed to the same volatile heated fuel fumes vulnerability. “Flight 800 was a tragedy, but to knowingly let it happen again would be criminal negligence," said Bishop. "History suggests that there will be future accidents unless all aircraft are upgraded with these fuel tank inerting systems. Unfortunately, since the FAA has chosen to do nothing, I am ensuring that that they are directed by Congress to take action to save lives.” Related Links