Posted on 06/30/2007 7:46:01 AM PDT by Hal1950
Nearly 11 years after a fuel tank exploded on TWA Flight 800, killing 230 people off the South Shore of Long Island, a congressional committee voted yesterday to force the Federal Aviation Administration to act to prevent similar explosions.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee added language to the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act that would require the federal government to make so-called inerting systems standard equipment on commercial airlines.
If passed by the full Congress, the FAA would have to require the installation of the safety equipment on the nation's commercial fleet to begin by the end of the year [CORRECTION: An article Friday about congressional legislation that would require commercial aircraft to be fitted with fuel-tank safety equipment misstated when the changes would have to begin. The legislation would mandate only that the Federal Aviation Administration publish rules by the end of the year requiring the equipment, according to an FAA spokesman.)
"Flight 800 was a tragedy, but to knowingly let it happen again would be an even greater tragedy," said Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton), a key supporter of the legislation. "There have been two other accidents involving fuel tank explosions, and while there is no predicting whether it will happen again, prudence would demand that we impose a solution."
A vote on the House bill is expected later this summer. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has introduced similar legislation in the Senate.
In August 2000 the National Transportation Safety Board found that an explosion in Flight 800's emptying the center fuel tank led to the jumbo jet's disintegration.
The board recommended that commercial jets be fitted with a system that replaces explosive air in partially empty fuel tanks with an inert gas.
But although U.S. military planes - including Air Force One - are required to have these systems on board, the FAA so far has not required them of commercial jetliners.
At a hearing last September, FAA associate administrator Nick Sabatini said the safety measure would become a requirement by this September.
But Bishop said the FAA had promised action before, and he wanted language that would hold the FAA to a schedule.
Yep, glad they got right to it... eleven years later. Or do they know something CNN hasn't told us about the crash?
Exactly how many "similar explosions" have there been since TWA-800? Hmmmm.
When? Where? What were the circumstances?
Who would have thought that inerting fuel tanks would prevent attack of passenger aircraft by surface-to-air missiles?
Correction: Nearly 11 years after TWA Flight 800 was shot down by a terrorist missile,
I think that a SAM fired from the ocean wasnt to good for the fuel tanks either.
Wasnt there people who saw streams of fire heading up to the plane, one was from Vietnam Vet SAR Pilot who knew what he saw.
The CIA cooked up a cartoon showing a plane without the Nose Climbing before it fell into the sea.
Another Clinton Mystery...
Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) - Koolaid drinker. Bet he’d like to buy a bridge, too.
I read on another FREEP thread that there was another tank explosion on a jet on a runway a number of years ago.
it doesnt make sense - you can throw lit matches into buckets of jet fuel all day and nothing will happen.
Correction: Nearly 11 years after TWA Flight 800 was shot down by a terrorist missile...
Agree 100%!!!!!!!!!!!
Isn't that Engineering 101 material?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.