Safety Recommendations For All Commercial Flights May Be Up For An Overhaul

By Mariko Lamb, Talk Radio News Service

A report revealing the probable cause of an ABX Air Boeing 767-200
Cargo Plane fire in San Francisco last year may lead to new safety
recommendations for all commercial flight operations.

In the final summary report of the technical and procedural
malfunctions, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found
that the fire was initiated by electrical current passing through an
oxygen hose.

Although oxygen hose leakage is not a direct safety hazard, “oxygen
leaks are a safety hazard because of their potential to facilitate
fires,” explained Pocholo Cruz, Maintenance Records Group Chairman
during a board meeting with the NTSB.

NTSB member Debbie Hersman described the findings of improper
maintenance procedures and performance deficiencies of the ABX Boeing
as similar to discrepancies reported by American Airlines in April.

Hersman noted it may be “time to potentially ratchet this
recommendation up, not by a carrier-by-carrier basis, but to ask the
Federal Aviation Administration to assess these systems to see if they
are performing as intended.”

The final NTSB safety recommendation report will be completed in
several weeks and will be available at www.ntsb.gov.