Following the TWA 800 accident in July 1996, the
FAA has issued 283 directives to prevent the
ignition of vapors in and around commercial
aircraft fuel tanks. On July 21, 2008, the FAA
published the Fuel Tank Flammability Rule, which
required manufacturers to develop design changes
and service instructions for installing systems
to further reduce fuel tank flammability.
The rule gave the two companies that design
affected aircraft until Dec. 27, 2010, to submit
service instructions for FAA approval. The FAA
alleges that in January 2010, Boeing committed
to provide the instructions by the deadline. The
instructions were to explain how to install
systems that would replace the oxygen in
airplane fuel tanks with non-flammable nitrogen
gas, reducing the risk of explosion.
Boeing missed the deadline for submitting
service instructions for the 747s by 301 days,
delivering them to the FAA on Oct. 24, 2011. The
company was 406 days late in submitting service
instructions for the 757s. In total, 383
U.S.-registered Boeing aircraft are affected by
these delays.
Airbus, the other manufacturer required to
develop instructions for retrofitting certain
models of its airplanes, met the Dec. 27, 2010,
deadline. The Fuel Tank Flammability
Rule requires airlines to retrofit half of its
fleet by 2014, and complete the retrofit by
2017. An airline trade group has proposed an
extension of those two dates because of the
service instruction delay for certain Boeing
aircraft.
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