ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 16, 1996 TAG: 9607160067
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it was toughening the regulation and scrutiny of shipping hazardous materials, such as the oxygen-producing canisters suspected in the May 11 crash of ValuJet Flight 592.
FAA Administrator David Hinson announced a ban on the transport of oxidizing or oxygen-producing chemicals in passenger cargo holds unless the holds are fitted with fire detection and extinguisher systems - a step recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board after the ValuJet crash, which claimed 110 lives.
Oxidizing chemicals are dangerous if they spill because they can ignite other materials and, because they produce oxygen, fuel a fire. Nitric acid and other highly toxic oxidizers already are banned on passenger aircraft, but others, such as hydrogen peroxide, may be carried if packaged correctly but would be prohibited by the new regulations.
The FAA also is asking Congress to redesignate $10.6 million in the agency's $2.5 billion budget for fiscal year 1997, most of which would go toward hiring 130 inspectors and other personnel to oversee hazardous-material shipments by airlines. There are currently only 24 inspectors focusing on hazardous freight.
An additional $3.4 million would go to the Department of Transportation to expand its hazardous material programs.
In the ValuJet crash, more than 100 oxygen canisters were loaded into an airtight hold with no fire suppression equipment. Investigators believe some of the canisters discharged early in the flight, igniting an intense fire fed by the oxygen.
Hinson conceded that the steps he announced might not have prevented the ValuJet crash. A maintenance contractor who removed the canisters from other ValuJet planes packed them in a cardboard box and mistakenly indicated that the canisters were empty.
Hinson said, ``Clearly the more money, the more inspectors and the more systems we have in place, the more opportunity there is to intercede in what might have been a human error.''
The NTSB has called for fire suppression equipment to be put in all cargo holds on passenger aircraft, but the FAA rejected that recommendation as too costly for airlines. The new regulations are effectively a compromise, designed to ensure that the chemicals are put in the safest holds.
If oxidizing chemicals do spill and cause a fire, the pilots will know and be able to use extinguishers.
The FAA also is drafting rules that would require cargo holds to be labeled so that ground crews will know whether a given hold has fire detection equipment.
The DOT announced a one-year ban on the carrying of full oxygen canisters following the crash, which officials said would be reviewed in January. Empty oxygen canisters could still be carried as cargo under the new rules.
The FAA also is drafting rules to require the retrofitting of more sophisticated flight data recorders, known as black boxes, on older aircraft. Newer recorders provide crash investigators with more data, allowing them to better pinpoint causes of aircraft accidents.
In 1995, the NTSB called for retrofitting flight data recorders following two crashes of Boeing 737s. The causes of those crashes could not be determined from data on older recorders.
The FAA is proposing to require that black boxes retrofitted on older aircraft provide 17 types of flight information, rather than the 11 data categories that recorders on many older aircraft supply.
Data recorders on new aircraft would supply 88 categories of information under the rules.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 linesby CNB