MELVILLE, N.Y. — With the announcement that thousands of the nation’s passenger jets will be retrofitted to prevent fuel tank explosions, the Federal Aviation Administration has put into place the long-awaited final change to address the causes behind the downing of TWA Flight 800.
The jet, which had departed Kennedy Airport and was bound for Paris, crashed 12 years ago Thursday off Long Island. All 230 people aboard perished.
The FAA rule, which is expected to take effect Friday, requires equipment that would render harmless the potentially explosive vapors in near empty fuel tanks.
The FAA ruling will affect 2,730 aircraft — 55 percent of the nation’s passenger airliner fleet — and all similarly designed jets built in the future. Boeing and Airbus, the only aircraft makers who use the center-fuel tank design, now have nine years to complete the retrofits. By 2010, all new aircraft with center fuel tanks must have the new safety feature.
The aircraft needing the retrofitting — dating to 1991 — are 900 Airbus A320s and 50 A330s as well as 965 Boeing 737s, 60 Boeing 747s, 475 Boeing 757s, 150 Boeing 767s and 130 Boeing 777s.
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