Eleven years after TWA 800, FAA to act on fuel tank rule
The U.S.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is expected to issue fuel tank inerting rules in September in a bid to reduce the risk of explosions. In 1996, just such an explosion caused the in-flight break-up of a TWA Boeing 747, and the new FAA mandate will target both new and in-service airliners.

The heart of the fuel tank problem is the flammability of the mix between air and fuel vapor inside a tank. This mix can become highly flammable when the temperature inside the tank increases. This happens, for example, when the aircraft is parked for several hours in a hot, sunny area–just one spark could cause a catastrophe. In the TWA 800 accident, investigators suspected that a faulty fuel quantity indication system created the spark.

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