GUY NORRIS / LOS ANGELES
The US Federal Aviation Administration is set to reveal initial recommendations for enhancing cockpit and cabin security around 10 October. The move is expected to require unprecedented levels of industry collaboration to meet short and long-term retrofit requirements.
The outline directives are initial recommendations from one of the two rapid response teams established on 16 September by transportation secretary Norman Mineta to address airport and aircraft security, which was due to report on 1 October. The FAA actions will include design and hardware changes to prevent unlawful entry to the flight deck, flight and cabin crew procedural changes to restrict cockpit access and potential longer term solutions to "harden" flight decks against terrorists, as well as the possible development of technology to prevent the use of aircraft as weapons.
Airbus and Boeing have begun joint talks to address the issues, while several aerospace companies are jockeying to meet the short-term need to strengthen flight deck doors and bulkheads. These include Kansas-based Butler National, which has filed a supplemental type certification (STC) application for "design and approval of an 'aircraft cockpit shield' to isolate and protect flight crews of commercial aircraft from unwarranted intrusion or weapons discharge into the cockpit". Arlington, Washington-based Flight Structures & Integration (FSI) is seeking a US patent on a new solution that "will be bullet and blast resistant, and hardened to withstand attempts at forced entry".
FSI is discussing the solution with several carriers including United Airlines and American Airlines, both of which approached the interior specialist within hours of the attack. Alaska Airlines is also working with FSI to help obtain an STC, and is allowing the company to use one of its Boeing MD-80s to develop a prototype. Although FSI is staying silent until its patent is granted, the design "will meet all FAR requirements, including rapid de-compression standards", and can be "cosmetically altered to appear similar to previous un-reinforced doors and bulkheads".
FAA flight deck door requirements, virtually identical to European Joint Aviation Authorities regulations, maintain that the door must be lockable to stop it being opened without crew permission; a key must allow the crew to open it for flight deck emergency evacuation; and, in the USA, the pilot must ensure it is closed and locked in flight. For current airworthiness design standards the door must not hinder evacuations, has to vent pressure differential and has to be operable from both sides in an emergency.
In testimony before a joint hearing of the House and Senate subcommittees on transportation appropriations on 20 September, Boeing vice president of engineering Hank Queen said there are more than 7,000 commercial aircraft registered in the USA, with more than 40 different flight deck systems. He adds "a truly impenetrable door design would have to prevent access by people, fire, smoke, toxic gases, bullets and grenades. It would also have to meet multiple other safety objectives".
Source: Flight International
