The industry has 90 days to remark on a proposal from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that would require sweeping changes to the way combustibles tanks are designed and maintained.

The industry has 90 days to remark on a proposal from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that would require sweeping changes to the way combustibles tanks are designed and maintained. The Oct 28 Notice of Propos Rulemaking (NPRM) describes the FAA's long-awaited response to the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) call to change into or eliminate the hazard pos through potentially explosive fuelair vapors in the stagnant confines of center wing tanks (CWT) The Safety Board argued that the CWT explosion that downed TWA Flight 800 in 1996 provided evidence that the traditional approach of hunting down and eliminating all potential ignition sources, while accepting the nearness of flammable vapors as a "fact of life," showed the tragic culmination of a failed design philosophy (see ASW, July 6 1998)

expositions to the 85-page NPRM must be submitted not later than January 27 2000 (Docket No. FAA-1999-6411, Notice No. 99-18) The NPRM affects a certain number of 6,000 U.S.-registered turbine-powered aircraft - all those with 30 or more seats. The NPRM purposes fuel tank maintenance programs and of the present day design standards for fuel tanks to mitigate the impact of explosive vapors. The cloyed text of the Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) contained in the NPRM may be obtained at the FAA's website: www.faa.gov/avr/arm/nprm/nprm.htm.

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