Airlines won't have fueltank safety devices installed in time; no extension from FAA
Skift Take
FAA's doing the right thing by coming down hard on Boeing, and i everyone agrees they'll meet the 2017 deadline, then why delay it between now and then?
Source: Newsday
Author: Chau Lam
Four years after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered airlines to retrofit their fleet with a safety feature designed to prevent accidents like what happened to TWA Flight 800, carriers said they may not get the job done on time.
Airlines for America, a trade group with members from major U.S. carriers, notified the federal agency that the airlines will not be able to install the safety feature, a flammable-suppression system, to half of their fleet by 2014 and complete the retrofit by 2017 as required.
The reason, the group said, is that Boeing has not certified the kits and service instructions needed for certain models of its aircraft, like the one that killed everyone aboard the Paris-bound Boeing 747 flight in 1996 when it exploded in midair.
"As you may know, the development and appro
