Earlier this summer, the NTSB asked the FAA to require helicopter manufactures to equip all new aircraft with crashworthy fuel systems. If history is any guide, we can expect the FAA to ignore that recommendation, despite that the FAA has known of the dangers posed by existing fuel system for decades.
But now Air
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
Airport fire trucks must get to a burning plane within three minutes if they are going to save any lives. That’s the maximum response time allowed by the National Fire Protection Association, the organization that sets the standard for airport firefighters, including those working at U.S. Air Force bases.
The survivable atmosphere inside an aircraft
USA Today ran Thomas Frank’s story on the unnecessary risks posed by post-crash aircraft fires. According to Frank’s article, small aircraft fires have killed at least 600 people since 1993, burning
them alive or suffocating them after otherwise survivable accidents. Hundreds more have survived post crash fires but have been horribly burned.
I’ve written
A few hours ago, USA Today published a lengthy investigative report devoted to small aircraft crashes. The conclusion: aviation manufacturers have long concealed the fact that their defectively designed products cause aircraft crashes and injures. And the investigating agencies, including the NTSB and FAA, let them get away with it.
The report covers many of
Robinson Helicopters has been installing bladder-style fuel tanks in its R44 helicopters since 2009. But much of the fleet manufactured before then is still flying with the old-style aluminum tanks that tend to rupture in otherwise minor accidents.
Last year, following a string of needless post-crash R44 fires, the Australian civil aviation authorities grounded
The Cirrus SR20 burst into flames on impact. The pilot’s wife died inside. The pilot escaped from the wreckage, but died from his burn injuries in the hospital.
Some say that a properly designed aircraft should not catch fire in an otherwise survivable accident. We know this crash was survivable, because the pilot was
This Robinson R44 crash was in Australia.
Witnesses said that nearby restaurant staff “grabbed every fire extinguisher in the building, but there were too many flames . . . There was nothing anyone could do.”
No occupant of a properly-designed helicopter should be burned in an otherwise survivable impact. Unfortunately, the fuel tanks installed in
Another Robinson R44 Helicopter rolled over and almost immediately caught fire. This time it was at Slaton Municipal Airport in Slaton, Texas. According to the Avalanche-Journal, the 
helicopter was engulfed in flames within 10 seconds of the helicopter rolling onto its side.
Fortunately, the pilot got out. But the R44 is racking up quite
The Cirrus SR22 crashed while landing at Falmouth Airpark in Massachusetts and immediately exploded in a fireball. One occupant died. Two others, however, survived, only to be badly burned in the post-crash fire.
Some say that, if properly designed, an aircraft should not burn as a result of an otherwise survivable impact. Technology that prevents