Robinson Helicopters began installing crash-resistant fuel tanks in 2010. Robinson Helicopters with fuel tanks installed before then tend to catch fire during accidents that, but for the fire, would have been survivable.
The Australian authorities thought that the safer tanks were a good idea. Enough Robinsons had caught fire after minor accidents that in 2013 the Australian government grounded all Robinson R44 helicopters operating in Australia until their owners installed the new-style fuel systems.
The NTSB asked the FAA to follow suit and issue a similar order grounding R44 helicopters in this country. But the FAA refused. Even assuming the old-style Robinson fuel tanks were needlessly dangerous, the FAA thought they really weren’t all that different from the fuel tanks installed in many other older helicopters. If the FAA grounded Robinsons until they were fixed, they’d have to ground a lot of helicopters produced by other manufacturers as well.
But the FAA has known about the trouble with old-style fuel systems for a very long time. In fact, since 1991, FAA regulations have required manufacturers to install in their helicopters fuel systems that are proven "crash resistant." Trouble is, those regulations apply only to helicopters designed after 1994. They do not apply to helicopters that are manufactured today, but were designed (or certified) before 1994.
Unfortunately, the majority of light helicopters manufactured in the US today were designed before 1994, and so in practice the regulations seldom apply. The NTSB thinks its time for that to change. The NTSB’s latest safety recommendation asks the FAA to:
Require, for all newly manufactured rotorcraft regardless of the design’s original certification date, that the fuel systems meet the crashworthiness requirements of 14 Code of Federal Regulations 27.952 or 29.952, “Fuel System Crash Resistance.”
What will the FAA do in response to the NTSB’s recommendation? If history is a guide, unfortunately, the FAA will do nothing.