Posted on 07/18/2007 9:38:05 AM PDT by Hal1950
Jim Hurd II crouched among the petunias and wispy pennisetum grasses at the TWA Flight 800 memorial Monday, trying to fix broken lights for Tuesday night's prayer service.
Since his son, Jamie Hurd III, died on the flight on July 17, 1996, Hurd, 62, travels to Smith Point Beach each July on the anniversary of the crash from his home in Severn, Md. During much of the rest of the year, he urges airline industry groups to outfit airplanes with a device that would have prevented the explosion that killed his son.
Yet 11 years after the center fuel tank of TWA Flight 800 caught fire, killing 230 people, the Federal Aviation Administration still does not require commercial jetliners to carry devices to make the fuel in their tanks inert, and Hurd is angry about it.
"It's like they're waiting for another fuel tank to explode before they act," said Hurd, vice president of the Families of TWA Flight 800 Association. "It's unacceptable at this point."
Before the TWA catastrophe, the deadliest of 17 incidents involving an airplane fuel tank explosion since 1960, the FAA had targeted sources of ignitions like faulty wires in its efforts to prevent such fires.
Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) last month introduced a bill requiring the FAA to implement the proposed regulations by Jan. 1.
"The government got a man on the moon in 10 years," said John Seaman, president of the Families of TWA Flight 800 Association. "It's been 11 years, and they can't even decide to fix the tanks."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
How does inerting tanks prevent against SAMs again?
Is that you Ron Paul?
Sorry..but I don’t believe the whole truth has been disclosed regarding TWA 800 or the Oklahoma City bombing.
It's going to be a long wait - unless some surface to air missile makes a direct strike on a 747 fuel tank.
They are going to wait a long time for the fuel tank to blow. I don’t think it will ever happen again.
No, but I think Hall950 just might be _Jim.
The only reason they need to fear the fuel tanks is if a missle hits them.
A flare dispenser.
That because they know this is phonier than a three dollar bill.
Good angle. What better way to get truth out than to force industry to spend billions on something unnecessary.
Yeah, those "fuel tanks" are a Biotch!!
If the fuel is inert, how’s the thing supposed to take off and fly. The report also said it was fumes in the empty main fuel tank that ignited. When was the last time an Intercontinental Flight mad it across the ocean with an empty main fuel tank?
However, they are very rare in commercial and private aircraft, even in piston aircraft which use a much more volitile fuel. For that matter, they are rare even in automobiles which also use a more volitial fuel than a jet.
What I am saying is that, in the age of Islamic terror and during a Clinton administration which chose to ignore it and which also had so many questionable events with even more questionable explanations, the official cause of Flt 800's demise is more difficult to believe.
“Fuel tank fears hoax linger(s) 11 years after TWA 800 crash”
Agreed! Thank you!
Or the OU Suicide Bomber either.
Happens all the time. A 747-100 like the one that blew up has a range in excess of 5500 miles and it makes sense only to fill it up with the amount of fuel necessary for the trip. The plane in question had just completed a non-stop Athens to New York trip. By comparison the 3500 mile New York to Paris flight was a short trip. It's not surprising at all that some fuel tanks that had been emptied on the earlier longer flight wouldn't be filled for the later shorter one.
You cannot discuss the cover-up of TWA 800 without refering to Jack Cashill
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