BY NANCY ROSENSTOCK
NEW YORK - Five months after Trans World Airlines (TWA)
Flight 800 crashed over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 230
people aboard, the National Transportation Safety Board
(NTSB) issued a report on December 13 highlighting a
problem with fuel systems on Boeing 747s. The report, the
NTSB's first public comment since the crash stating what
should be done, "demonstrates the agency's strong
confidence that the crash resulted from a mechanical
malfunction, rather than a bomb or missile," according to
an article in the December 14 New York Times.
The report's recommendation to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) points out that the fuel pipe that runs down the center of the plane, called a cross-feed manifold, can allow static electricity to build up, resulting in a spark that could ignite fumes in the tank causing an explosion.
Among the NTSB's recommendations are the procedure known as "inerting" - pumping inert gas into the fuel tank so that the fuel vapors that build up will not explode.
The procedure of "inerting" has been known for 24 years but has not been implemented due to its high cost, and the unwillingness of companies to pay. "We hate to say it, but safety research is still driven by the body count," said an FAA engineer involved with safety projects. "It's tombstone engineering."
Other crashes have prompted similar concerns, but the government never mandated airlines to enact this safety procedure. In December, 1963, a PanAm 707 plane exploded over Elkton, Maryland, killing 81 people. The cause of the crash was lightning that ignited fuel vapors in the plane's tanks.
In 1990, the center fuel tank of a Boeing 737 jet owned by Philippine Airlines exploded. The plane was still on the runway when the explosion occurred, killing eight people. A spark from a faulty fuel system was believed to be the cause.
"Inerting" was originally developed by the military to guard against explosions in fuel tanks on military planes. In 1972, the FAA proposed using the technique on commercial airlines. The FAA withdrew the recommendation, however, under pressure from the airline companies who complained that their costs would rise if forced to implement this safety measure.
As quickly as the NTSB issued its recent report on 747s, the FBI disassociated itself from it. James Kallstrom, head of the FBI investigation said, "It's not prudent or professional to comment on what might or might not be the cause of this tremendous tragedy. And I am amazed that people continue to do that."
In an effort to keep the theories alive that the plane exploded as a result of a bomb or a missile, the FBI is clinging to the idea that the 5 percent of the plane that still remains on the ocean floor may somehow hold the clue that they need. But with the boats pulled from the ocean until January for the holidays, it appears at least as far as the FBI is concerned, that TWA 800 will "end as one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in aviation history," the New York Times concluded in a November 21 article on the crash.
So far, in 1996, more people have died in airline crashes than in any other year. And, just since October of this year, on the average, a crash has occurred every two weeks. At this rate, a passenger jet may crash as often as once a week by the year 2010. The government's response to these figures is not to immediately ground all 747s to have their fuel pipe systems checked or to ground all 737s to have the rudders checked, as should have been the case immediately following the USAir crash over Pittsburgh in 1994. Instead, government officials focused on "the archaic safety systems and often inadequately trained pilots, mechanics and air traffic controllers of less-developed regions of the world, where many of the crashes have been occurring."
These airline disasters reflect the pressures to cut back on safety measures as competition intensifies among the aircraft manufacturers. This rivalry is also highlighted in the continued shake-up in the aerospace industry as Boeing announced on December 15 that it would acquire McDonnell Douglas, a chief competitor. This move would make Boeing the number one aircraft maker and the number two military contractor with more than 60 percent of global sales in the civil aircraft market.
Boeing's acquisition also "could unleash political pressures in Europe for renewed government aid for Airbus," London's Financial Times reported. The big business daily reported that Boeing was determined to outsell Airbus, its European rival by at least 2-1.
Meanwhile, Wall Street reacted quite favorably to the merger sending the companies stock prices up and adding 12 points to the Dow Jones Industrial Average on December 16.
Nancy Rosenstock is a member of the International Association of Machinists and works for TWA at JFK Airport in New York.