In July 1996 fuel vapour exploded in the centre wing tank (CWT) of a Boeing 747 operating TWA Flight 800. All 230 on board died.
Almost 20 years later, on 22 December 2015 Boeing agreed to pay an administrative penalty of $US12 million, mainly for tardiness in addressing the underlying causes of the TWA 800 accident. The penalty also covers Boeing use of faulty fasteners on the 777 and 11 other unspecified compliance failures. See
Press Release ? Boeing Agrees to Pay $12 Million and Enhance its Compliance Systems to Settle Enforcement Cases.
Such corporate contempt for regulations should attract as much opprobrium as the Volkswagen emissions scandal. Instead it was buried in a media release from the Federal Aviation Administration immediately before Christmas.
Let’s recap.
National Transportation Safety Board concluded that probable cause of the CWT explosion on TWA 800 was ignition of a flammable fuel/air mixture in the tank, by a short circuit outside of the tank that allowed excessive voltage to enter CWT through electrical wiring associated with the fuel quantity indication system.
NTSB also criticized the design and certification of the Boeing 747 based on a fallacy, that fuel tank explosions could be prevented solely by precluding all ignition sources. Furthermore NTSB suggested it was wrong to design and certificated the plane with heat transfer sources from air conditioning packs immediately beneath the CWT, which rendered tank vapours much more hazardous.
Following the NTSB investigation FAA progressively issued 283 directives to minimise the risk of ignition in and around aircraft fuel tanks, and in 2008 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.
Boeing (and Airbus) had until December 2010, to comply. In July 2012 FAA proposed a civil penalty of $13.57 million against Boeing Company for failing to meet the deadline for more than 380 planes. See
Press Release ? FAA Proposes $13.57 Million Civil Penality Against Boeing Company
It’s taken another three years for FAA to actually take action against Boeing. Safety may be paramount but it clearly isn’t urgent.