The following transportation safety issue was previously on the NTSB’s Most Wanted List. As a result of the actions taken to implement the necessary life-saving safety recommendations…We are Safer.
Airplane Cargo Compartment Fires
Following a 1988 American Airlines cargo fire in Nashville, Tennessee, the NTSB recommended that the FAA require fire/smoke detection systems and fire extinguishing systems for all Class D cargo compartments. Citing unwarranted costs, the FAA initially declined to implement the safety recommendations.
On May 11, 1996, ValuJet Flight 592 crashed in Miami, Florida after one or more oxygen generators being improperly carried as cargo caught on fire. Media attention on this issue increased, and the NTSB added these closed safety recommendations to its Most Wanted List. The FAA subsequently took interim steps to ban the shipment of oxygen generators in passenger planes and reassess the NTSB’s recommendations for Class D cargo compartments. In February 1998, the FAA issued a final rule requiring Class D cargo holds to be retrofitted with fire detection and suppression equipment by early 2001.
