US airlines told to spend €534m on safety

US airlines are being ordered to spend up to $686m (€534m) to install a system to reduce the chance of fuel tank explosions like the one that brought down a TWA jumbo jet off Long Island in 1996.

The decision, announced today by Federal Aviation Administration chief Marion Blakey, affects about 3,800 Boeing and Airbus aircraft operated by domestic airlines.

In the last 14 years there have been three fuel tank explosions, including the TWA accident, resulting in 346 deaths. Blakey said the new device could eliminate up to four accidents over the next 25 years.

“We have a plan that will virtually eliminate fuel tank explosions aboard aircraft,” Blakey said in Washington.

A cost-benefit analysis still must be done and airlines need time to plan for the change, so the requirement is not expected to take effect for at least two years.

Once the rule is issued, the programme will be phased in over seven years. During that time existing planes will have to be retrofitted with the device and new planes will have them as standard equipment.

TWA Flight 800 crashed off the coast of Long Island, New York on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 people on board the Boeing 747.

The National Transportation Safety Board blamed the accident on an explosion, saying vapours in a partly empty fuel tank probably were ignited by a spark in the wiring.

The accident prompted FAA scientists to step up research aimed at eliminating potential ignition sources for such explosions and reducing the flammability of vapours in fuel tanks.

The device they came up with pumps non-flammable nitrogen-enriched air into fuel tanks, reducing the oxygen in fuel vapours and lessening the chance of an explosion.

In 2001, a government-industry task force concluded it would be too expensive - up to $19bn (€14bn) – to retrofit airliners with the equipment necessary to pump non-flammable nitrogen into fuel tanks.

The FAA estimates the cost between $600m (€467m) and $6.8bn (€5.3bn), Blakey said.