I too applaud FedEx for their decision to install fire suppression systems in their aircraft.
Meanwhile all the worlds aviation regulators sit on their hands waiting for a freighter accident to occur where the general public are involved (i.e. a crash in a populated area involving significant loss of life). I am disgusted by the attitude of regulators and politcians (whose role is to regulate for the sake of public safety) who assume that this won't happen because it hasn't happened already. I know there is an FAA working group, but this has been meeting for nearly 20 years now.
Regardless of the outcome of the enquiry, I hope that UPS can see beyond the possibilty that if their crew did something different they may have bought themselves the extra few minutes needed for survival and see that same situation could have occurred when more than 3 hours flight time from a suitable field.
Will TNT wait until they suffer from a hull loss due to fire before acting?
I fly domestic freight. I have no fire suppression in the aircraft holds. I have detection only in the main hold. There isn't even detection in the lower cargo holds. Guess what my biggest worry is every time I get airborne?
Fire suppression systems become even more difficult to fit in "Quick Change" aircraft of which there are many in the world. I can see that the fitting of my aircraft with any system would cost several times the price of the airframe. Mandating this on such old aircraft would definately put a lot of small freight companies out of business. Even so, it is still the right thing to do.
Mandating this on new aircraft would obviously make buying new aircraft a bit more expensive. The insurance companies are the last hope for making the economic case for installing fire suppresion systems. The regulators have demonstrated very clearly that they won't act.