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Friday June 2 3:50 PM ET

White House Group to Study Risks From Aging Wiring

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday it was setting up a group to coordinate federal research on aging wiring, a possible cause of at least two recent air disasters and nagging headaches in spacecraft and nuclear power plants.

The new inter-agency group will pool expertise across a range of disciplines to determine ``if there are common issues'' that need to be addressed through research and development programs, said Jake Siewert, a White House spokesman.

He said the group, to hold its first meeting on Wednesday, was to report back to President Clinton's science and technology advisor, Neal Lane, in October.

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``We have concluded that aging wiring is an issue of national concern that extends beyond aviation,'' Duncan Moore, the associate White House director for technology, said in a May 10 memo outlining the need for the new task force.

Investigators are studying whether wiring glitches might have caused the crash of Trans World Airways Flight 800 in 1986 and of Swissair Flight 111 in 1998. Bad wiring has led to fires and equipment failures for years in military and commercial aircraft.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has also been dogged by wiring flaws on Columbia, Endeavor and Discovery space shuttle missions.

Modern wide-body aircraft can contain nearly 200 miles of wiring, much of it very thin, with insulation even thinner, often the thickness of three human hairs.

``Aging wiring effects must be accounted for in the regulations and practices which govern the design and maintenance of the aircraft,'' Paul McCarthy, executive air safety chairman of the Air Line Pilots Association, told Congress in September.

Moore, in the memo cited to Reuters, said his office was acting after reviewing existing research and wiring safety efforts under way at the Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Defense and NASA.

He also cited the role of the International Aviation Safety Association, a consumer safety group led by Lyn Romano, whose husband, Ray, died in the SwissAir crash, and Ed Block, a former Defense Logistics Agency wiring expert who is on an FAA panel studying airliner wiring. Block, in a telephone interview, said there was ``a crying need'' for the government to tackle what he described as a ticking time bomb of a public safety hazard.

``For the longest time, I couldn't get any government official to recognize that four-letter word -- wire -- as a potential safety problem,'' he said.

The new White House initiative will be run by President Clinton's National Science and Technology Council, set up in 1993 to coordinate science, space and technology policies.

The new task force will include experts from the FAA, Pentagon and NASA as well as the Departments of Commerce, Energy and Transportation, said Siewert, the White House spokesman. The creation of the panel was reported first in USA TODAY'S Friday editions.

Separately, the FAA said it was considering requiring all commercial airlines to pump inert gas into aircraft fuel tanks before takeoff to prevent explosions like the one that brought down TWA Flight 800.

In an interview with the Washington Post published on Friday, Elizabeth Erickson, director of the aircraft certification service, said new cost estimates showed the requirement would not be prohibitively expensive.

As a result of the July 17, 1996, explosion and crash of TWA Flight 800 that killed 230 people, the National Transportation and Safety Board in December, 1996, issued an ``urgent'' recommendation that center fuel tanks be modified in some way to prevent the buildup of explosive vapors.

In the case of TWA 800, the NTSB has determined that fumes in the Boeing 747's nearly empty center fuel tank exploded, although no ignition source has been identified. The plane exploded over the Atlantic Ocean about 12 minutes after it took off from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on a flight to Paris.

Pumping an inert gas such as nitrogen into aircraft tanks before takeoff would render them safe during the initial climb to higher altitudes, where fuel vapors would cool to the point that they would not be in danger of explosion. At higher altitudes, there is insufficient oxygen to support combustion.

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Friday June 2 2:32 AM ET

Government Plans to Probe Safety of Aging Wiring

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Clinton administration plans to form a research group next week to probe the safety of aging wiring in airplanes, space shuttles and nuclear power plants, USA Today reported Friday.

``Aging wiring is an issue of national concern that extends beyond aviation,'' the paper quoted Duncan Moore, the White House's associate director for technology, as saying in a May 10 memo.

Damaged wire insulation has led to fires and electrical equipment failures for years in military and commercial airplanes, according to Air Force, Navy and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) documents.

U.S. and Canadian investigators are also studying whether wiring malfunctions might have caused the crashes of TWA Flight 800 in 1996 and Swissair Flight 111 in 1998.

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All 230 people aboard the TWA Boeing 747-100 that crashed off Long Island, New York on July 17, 1996 died. The Swissair MD-11 crash off Nova Scotia on Sept. 2, 1998, killed all 229 people on board.

The paper said NASA had put a hold on space shuttle flights last September because damaged wiring was found throughout the agency's aircraft. An exposed wire caused a short circuit during the launch of the shuttle Columbia last summer. Similar flaws were later found elsewhere on Columbia and on the Endeavor and Discovery shuttles.

The research group ``will become the focal point for wire safety technology in the U.S.,'' Moore's memo says, according to the USA Today report.

``This group will be responsible for ensuring that federal research is coordinated and communicated in a timely way to improve safety for air, space and other areas where aging wiring is a safety issue,'' it said.

The group's first meeting is set for Wednesday, Moore told the paper in an interview. Officials from the FAA, the Defense Department, NASA and other agencies have been asked to attend.

In the memo, Moore said his office decided to form the group after reviewing research and safety efforts begun by the government agencies and meeting with leaders of the International Aviation Safety Association, a consumer safety organization.

IASA has been pressuring Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites)'s office to get more involved in wiring safety issues. It is led by Lyn Romano, whose husband died in the Swissair crash, and Ed Block, a former Defense Department wiring expert who is on an FAA panel that is studying airliner wiring.

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04/25/00- Updated 03:37 PM ET  
   

Swissair crash prompts wiring inspections

By Fred Bayles and Alan Levin, USA TODAY

Evidence of electrical arcing and fire aboard downed Swissair Flight 111 led federal safety officials Monday to call for detailed inspections of wiring in the cockpit ceilings of all MD-11 jumbo jets.

The inspections are not expected to disrupt service. There are 186 MD-11s in service worldwide; 65 are operated by U.S. carriers.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) urged the FAA on Monday to do expedited checks for chafed, broken or cracked wires and loose connections around two key overhead panels. They route power to a variety of the jet's controls, computerized instruments and communications systems.

Swissair previously had disconnected wiring for an entertainment system located in the same ceiling area after investigators found evidence of arcing and heat in the wiring there, too. Investigators have not concluded whether the entertainment system was the source of the fire.

Swissair 111, from New York to Geneva, crashed into the Atlantic off Nova Scotia on Sept. 2, about 16 minutes after pilots reported smoke in the cockpit. All 229 people aboard died.

NTSB Chairman James Hall said inspections were requested after Canadian officials found wiring problems in some of 12 MD-11s they inspected as part of their probe into the Swissair crash.

The Canadian investigators have found evidence of an intense fire that reached temperatures of 1,100 degrees in the cockpit ceiling of Swissair 111. The fire ran along a 12-foot path from the cockpit to the first-class section.

Investigators have not identified the source of the fire, but three different types of wiring recovered from the wreckage showed signs of arcing and scorching. Investigators are reconstructing the cockpit area to determine whether these wiring problems were the cause or the effect of the fire.

Hall said there was no conclusive evidence that the wiring in question caused the crash.

''Although the apparent electrical arcing on Swissair Flight 111 has not been determined to be a source of fire, and Swissair's voluntary inspections of its MD-11 airplanes have not uncovered any serious discrepancies, the safety board is concerned about the recent discoveries,'' he said.

The FAA issued a statement Monday saying it already has begun an examination of the issue. ''These proposed actions are on a fast track, and we expect to issue them very shortly,'' the statement said.

The FAA and Boeing Co., which builds the MD-11, had already issued directives for more limited inspections of the overhead electrical panels and for replacement of a dimmer switch that can overheat.

Boeing spokeswoman Lori Gunter said the company planned to issue more detailed inspection orders later this month. She said the new inspections can be done through access panels in the ceiling and would not put the jets out of service for long.