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‘They found no
immediate fleetwide safety issues, but they found definite room for
improvement in maintenance practices.’ — ELIZABETH ERICKSON FAA official |
“CRACKED WIRES do not, in and of themselves, represent an immediate
safety problem,” Erickson said in a discussion of the agency’s program to
study aircraft wiring. But, she added, “they are of concern to
us.” The FAA launched a program two years ago to study wiring in aircraft, particularly aging airliners. The advisory committee for that effort is meeting in Washington this week to review progress. TWA 800 The National Transportation Safety Board has concluded that the destruction of TWA flight 800 four years ago, killing all 230 aboard, resulted from a fuel tank explosion, probably caused by a short circuit. The FAA program studied airliners during their regular maintenance stops, looking specifically for wiring problems. “They found no immediate fleetwide safety issues, but they found definite room for improvement in maintenance practices,” Erickson said. Not all the problems were caused by aging, she added, noting, for example, that in some cases wiring insulation had been unintentionally damaged by work crews in tight areas. “We found a need for better targeted inspection out there in the fleet,” she said. MAINTENANCE REPORT CHANGES |
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Erickson said Boeing and Airbus have advised airlines of problem
areas so they can improve wiring inspections and noted maintenance reports
are being changed to more completely show repairs made on wiring. The FAA
is also improving its training of inspectors to better focus on wiring
problems. Erickson said the agency is also working on the development of new, more sensitive circuit breakers to shut off power when a short occurs in a wire and on technology to check the condition of wires throughout a plane. Asked about reports that the cracked wiring found on the six retired airliners could mean some planes have hundreds of damaged wires, she insisted that assumption was incorrect. Those inspections targeted areas where wiring was under the most stress, areas where it was exposed to heat or cramped into a tight areas, she said. Those findings “can’t be extrapolated to the whole of the aircraft,” she said. The detailed wiring checks done on the six retired planes included removal of wiring bundles from various parts of the planes, a step that can’t be done on aircraft that are still in service, she noted. The six planes included an Airbus A300, two DC-9s, a Boeing 747, a DC-10 and a Lockheed L-1011. © 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
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