FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 12, 2000
Contact: Drucella Andersen at (202)493-4152 or
Alison Duquette at (202)267-3883

Since the tragic TWA 800 accident in July 1996, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has focused on the three fundamental areas that keep airplane fuel tanks safe: the prevention of ignition sources, fuel flammability, and fuel tank inerting.

Ground-based inerting displaces oxygen from vapor space so fuel vapor cannot burn despite the possibility of an ignition source. The FAA’s fuel tank inerting research and development program continues to progress. Highlights are outlined below.

The FAA has tasked the ARAC to perform a new 12 month task related to fuel tank inerting methods. The ARAC Fuel Tank Inerting Harmonization Working Group will prepare a report to the FAA/JAA within 12 months. The task requires that the report provide recommended regulatory text for rulemaking and the data needed for the FAA to evaluate the options for implementing new regulations that would require eliminating or significantly reducing the development of flammable vapors in fuel tanks on in-service, new production, and new type design transport category airplanes. A notice containing the new ARAC task was published in the Federal Register in July 2000.

Short-Term Research

• FAA plans to conduct flight tests in Seattle using a Boeing 737 equipped with a fiber-optic oxygen sensor in the fuel tanks to test the effectiveness of a system that pumps nitrogen into the fuel tank while the plane is on the ground. This is part of a study began in 1999 to determine how nitrogen could be pumped into planes at airports with a system that uses a membrane to separate nitrogen from air. It is hoped that flight tests will begin in August.

• FAA completes planning of flight test of 737 to determine effectiveness of ground based inerting and determine potential modifications to aircraft that would be necessary for possible retrofit into current transport fleet. This testing will measure oxygen concentrations and pressures within the center wing fuel tank of the airplane during simulated operational conditions. The data obtained will be used by the new ARAC fuel tank inerting group to evaluate the technical and practicality issues associated with ground-based inerting.
• "The Cost of Implementing Ground-Based Fuel Tank Inerting in the Commercial Fleet,"* provides a technical feasibility analysis of ground-based fuel tank inerting for the commercial fleet. The study did not evaluate the airplane modifications that would be required, but looked at the ground-based equipment and the infrastructure that would be required. The research data indicated that the cost to implement ground-based inerting is significantly less than the estimates in ARAC’s Fuel Tank Harmonization Working Group report.

• The FAA issues report "A Benefit Analysis for Nitrogen Inerting of Aircraft Fuel Tanks Against Ground Fire Explosions", which analyzed 13 accidents over a 30-year period in which a fuel tank explosion may have occurred. The purpose of the report is to determine possible benefits provided by nitrogen inerting due to reduction in post-crash fuel tank explosions in transport airplanes. These benefits were not considered by the initial ARAC report in 1998. The study, conducted by the FAA and the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority, determined that very few lives would have been saved with the use of nitrogen inerting. This data will be used by the new ARAC fuel tank inerting group to evaluate the feasibility of ground based inerting.

Long-Term Research

• OBIGGS Study: With NASA, FAA is pursuing a long-term research program evaluating a possible on-board inert-gas generating system that could be used on the ground to inert the fuel tanks, thus eliminating fuel tank exposure to flammable vapors, and provide nitrogen on demand during flight for fire suppression in other areas of the aircraft.

Some technical reports are available on the FAA’s Fire Safety Section web site at: http://www.fire.tc.faa.gov.

###