Thu, Oct 20, 2005
Stronger Seats Designed To Increase Crash Survivability
It's the kind of story
for which you might want a fanfare. Something bold and brassy.
After all, this has been a long-time coming.
After 17-years, the FAA has finally completed work on its rule
requiring stronger passenger seats on commercial flights. The rule
will affect aircraft built after 2009.
The seats will have to withstand 16-Gs -- compared to the 9-G
requirement currently in effect. Same goes for the cabin floors and
the tracks upon which the seats are mounted.
The rule does not require aircraft manufacturers to retrofit
aircraft currently in service. That's a tip of the hat to the
industry turmoil that broke out after the terrorist attacks of
2001.
Aircraft built since the 1990s already have seats that can
withstand 16-Gs.
"It was not worth the minute safety benefit for retrofits," said
John Hickey, director of FAA's Aircraft Certification Service,
quoted by the Washington Post. "It's the right, sweet-spot solution
-- it gives passengers the safety benefit at a very reasonable
cost."
Indeed, the Post reports
a retrofit solution would have cost the industry $519 million. The
current solution will cost approximately $34 million between 2009
and 2034. In that period, the FAA estimates the airline industry
will take delivery on 1,752 new aircraft with a total of 225,274
passenger seats.
"From a carrier perspective, this rule makes sense," Basil J.
Barimo, vice president of operations and safety for the Air
Transport Association, told the Post. "The FAA recognized they had
a difficult case to make with retrofit design because a significant
number of seats had already been replaced with 16-G compatible
seats."
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