U.S. to require fuel tank safety system on jetliners

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - All new jetliners and more than 2,700 planes now in service, including Boeing Co 737s and A320s made by Europe's Airbus, must be equipped with systems designed to minimize the risk of fuel tank explosions, U.S. regulators said on Wednesday.

"I recognize that this is challenging for commercial aviation," Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said in a statement that detailed the government's initiative that grew out of the destruction of TWA Flight 800 12 years ago.

"We can't change the past, but we can make the future safer for thousands of air travelers and this rule does just that," Peters said.

Major airlines, through their trade group, said they plan to comply with the rule after raising questions about previous proposals on cost and other concerns.

More than 2,700 passenger planes in service with U.S. carriers would be covered under the plan to replace oxygen in tanks with inert gas to prevent potential ignition of flammable fuel vapors.

New aircraft and planes built after 1991 would be covered by the requirement.

Retrofits would be necessary for 900 A320s and 50 A330s made by Airbus; 965 Boeing 737s; 60 747s; 475 757s; 150 767s and 130 777s.

Cost estimates range from $92,000 to $311,000 per plane.

There are about 1,000 fewer planes covered in the final rule than were included in the agency's initial proposal in 2005. Airlines are grounding older, inefficient aircraft due to high fuel costs.

U.S. airlines are also taking delivery of far fewer new planes due to industry financial constraints.

Airbus said it would "move forward to make sure" its aircraft are in full compliance. There have been no fuel tank explosions aboard Airbus planes, the company said.

Boeing worked with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to develop an anti-flammability system for commercial airlines. Honeywell Inc is supplying them to industry.

Boeing said all planes rolling off its production lines this year will have the new technology, including the yet-to-fly 787 wide body.

TWA Flight 800, a jumbo jet, exploded over the Atlantic on a flight from New York to Paris in July 1996, killing all 230 people aboard.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators, who pushed for new fuel tank safety measures, concluded an electrical short probably ignited fumes in the center fuel tank.

Fuel tank explosions are rare. Other than Flight 800, there has been only one other confirmed case. That involved a Thai Airways 737-400 parked at the gate in Bangkok in March 2001.

(Reporting by John Crawley; Editing by Carol Bishopric)