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Fuel tank fears linger 11 years after TWA 800 crash
Newsday ^ | Laura Rivera

Posted on 07/18/2007 9:38:05 AM PDT by Hal1950

Jim Hurd II crouched among the petunias and wispy pennisetum grasses at the TWA Flight 800 memorial Monday, trying to fix broken lights for Tuesday night's prayer service.

Since his son, Jamie Hurd III, died on the flight on July 17, 1996, Hurd, 62, travels to Smith Point Beach each July on the anniversary of the crash from his home in Severn, Md. During much of the rest of the year, he urges airline industry groups to outfit airplanes with a device that would have prevented the explosion that killed his son.

Yet 11 years after the center fuel tank of TWA Flight 800 caught fire, killing 230 people, the Federal Aviation Administration still does not require commercial jetliners to carry devices to make the fuel in their tanks inert, and Hurd is angry about it.

"It's like they're waiting for another fuel tank to explode before they act," said Hurd, vice president of the Families of TWA Flight 800 Association. "It's unacceptable at this point."

Before the TWA catastrophe, the deadliest of 17 incidents involving an airplane fuel tank explosion since 1960, the FAA had targeted sources of ignitions like faulty wires in its efforts to prevent such fires.

Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) last month introduced a bill requiring the FAA to implement the proposed regulations by Jan. 1.

"The government got a man on the moon in 10 years," said John Seaman, president of the Families of TWA Flight 800 Association. "It's been 11 years, and they can't even decide to fix the tanks."

(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News
KEYWORDS: flight800; jimhurd; johnseaman; twa800; twaflight800
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To: Hal1950

I still think that center fuel tank story is a cover story for what really happened. There were just too many people who saw something else that day.


21 posted on 07/18/2007 10:09:37 AM PDT by Revel
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To: Wolfie
Is that you Ron Paul?

Nope.

22 posted on 07/18/2007 10:24:41 AM PDT by Ol' Dan Tucker (After six years of George W. Bush I long for the honesty and sincerity of the Clinton Administration)
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To: massgopguy
If the fuel is inert, how’s the thing supposed to take off and fly.

The fuel isn't inert. A gas like nitrogen is pumped into the ullage (empty part of the tank) so you don't have a fuel vapor and oxygen mix in there. No oxygen = no fire in the tank.

23 posted on 07/18/2007 10:57:34 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (May the heirs of Charles Martel and Jan Sobieski rise up again to defend Europe.)
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To: Hal1950

It’s pretty apparent, isn’t it, that the aviation community doesn’t believe that that fuel tank exploded.


24 posted on 07/18/2007 11:13:37 AM PDT by wayoverontheright
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To: Hal1950

If it was actually the fuel tanks, they would have grounded 747’s the next day. Nope. It isn’t the fuel tanks.


25 posted on 07/18/2007 11:39:19 AM PDT by Bigoleelephant (Lawyers are to America what lead was to Rome.)
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To: bmwcyle
I don’t think it will ever happen again.

I'm not 100% convinced it ever did occur.

26 posted on 07/18/2007 11:41:48 AM PDT by Clam Digger
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To: coloradan
How does inerting tanks prevent against SAMs again?

Just accept that this man's crusade is entirely an emotional one, and move on to other threads.

27 posted on 07/18/2007 12:35:23 PM PDT by Publius6961 (MSM: Israelis are killed by rockets; Lebanese are killed by Israelis.)
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To: coloradan
How does inerting tanks prevent against SAMs again?

Just accept that this man's crusade is entirely an emotional one, and move on to other threads.

28 posted on 07/18/2007 12:35:28 PM PDT by Publius6961 (MSM: Israelis are killed by rockets; Lebanese are killed by Israelis.)
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To: Old_Mil

Good link.

Those who believe the official version should have a look.


29 posted on 07/18/2007 12:58:46 PM PDT by labette
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To: Hal1950

Did NASA ever believe Grissom’s story that his Mercury Capsule hatch ‘just blew’?


30 posted on 07/18/2007 1:01:44 PM PDT by AU72 (`)
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To: Hal1950

It wasn’t a spark in the fuel tank! We all know that. check
with the 100 witnesses as to what they saw.


31 posted on 07/18/2007 8:46:53 PM PDT by upcountryhorseman (An old fashioned conservative)
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To: coloradan

I don’t think so color ...


32 posted on 07/24/2007 7:02:45 PM PDT by _Jim (Highly recommended book on the Kennedy assassination - Posner: "Case Closed")
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To: blues_guitarist
Yeah, those "fuel tanks" are a Biotch!!
Funny ... none of the other 'pilot eyes in the skies' that night saw anything resembling a SAM ...

See, the airlines under the direction off the FAA fly in what may be termed 'air lanes' for the purposes of orderly directing traffic in the skies, and TWA800 was not the only craft in those lanes that evening ...

33 posted on 07/24/2007 7:05:57 PM PDT by _Jim (Highly recommended book on the Kennedy assassination - Posner: "Case Closed")
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To: upcountryhorseman

There were a lot more eyewitnesses than that!

Also Jack Cashill, the author of First Strike, which is about TWA800, will be on Hannity’s America this Sunday 7/29 talking about TWA 800. Everybody tune in!


34 posted on 07/26/2007 6:30:53 PM PDT by WonkyTonky (My gun is safer than Ted Kennedy's car. Vote for Duncan Hunter 2008!!)
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