Stiffer Canadian Rules Urged for Small Aircraft

It happens about 15 to 20 times a year in Canada: Everyone aboard a small aircraft survives a crash, only to perish when a fire breaks out after the impact.

After analyzing 521 aircraft crashes over a 25-year period in which a "post-impact fire" was a contributing factor in death, the Transportation Safety Board found 128 accidents in Canada that were deemed otherwise survivable, but where fire nonetheless led to 205 deaths and 80 serious injuries.

Now it is calling on Transport Canada and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to require the North American aviation industry to change how it builds small planes and to retrofit the 240,000 that are in use today to make them safer.

"If the people can survive the impact, the airplane should not burn," said Bill Kemp, the board's Edmonton-based senior regional investigator and author of the report. "What we're suggesting is to design the airplane so that it won't burn when the impact forces are within the range of human survivability."

The board did not provide a dollar value to the stiff new rules it is calling for, but it would be extensive. "If there were easy fixes, it would have been done already," Kemp said.

The study was prompted by the May 2000, death of a pilot in a Cessna 177B Cardinal who was attempting to take off from a grass airstrip at Calling Lake, Alta. The aircraft struck trees during the initial climb, struck the ground and burst into flames. The pilot died from the effects of the fire and the passenger was seriously injured.

The study looked only at aircraft under 5,700 kilograms, the largest of which could carry up to 10 people. These planes are generally for personal use, small businesses and tourist-related travel, such as fishing trips to remote places.

Kemp said the aviation industry should learn from the auto industry, which long ago figured out that if gas tanks were protected on impact, it's less likely that fuel would ignite after an accident.

His study noted that Canada and the United States have adopted stringent safety standards for highway motor-vehicle design, resulting in crash-worthy standards for cars, vans and trucks that "surpassed those of small aircraft, especially in control of ignition sources, fuel system integrity and occupant protection in crash conditions."

"There are fewer post-impact fires in cars now than there were 30 years ago," Kemp said. "The race-car industry has applied appropriate technology to their cars. We have many examples of cars that crashed at close to the same cruise speed of a small aircraft and there's been no fire.

"We're suggesting this technology is transferable to small aircraft."

Kemp said fuel tanks that are routinely placed at the front of a wing, for example, are at extreme risk of breaking during a crash. But if fuel tanks were placed at the rear of the wing, behind protective spars, the risk would be reduced.

Aircraft could also be better outfitted with protective insulating materials in places that are vulnerable to friction heating and sparking.

"None of this stuff is perfectly cut and dried," Kemp said. "If you relocate fuel tanks, you have to reconsider weight and balance issues as well.... We're looking at new designs at the drawing-board stage. You begin to design the airplane with reducing the risk of post-impact fire in mind."

Retrofitting planes already in use is also possible, he said.

Leaked fuel only becomes a danger if it ignites, so the idea is to prevent it from igniting. That can be done by applying technology to turn off the battery and electrical systems to eliminate "high-temperature electrical arcing," which acts as a potential ignition source.

"If you have damaged wiring in a small aircraft accident and the battery remains online, you can get high-temperature arcing. If that arcing happens in close proximity to leaking fuel, you're going to have a fire, guaranteed," Kemp said.

The board can only make recommendations. It is up to Transport Canada to implement any changes - something it likely wouldn't do without input from the FAA and other key players in the aviation industry, including manufacturers.

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