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Charge: plastic fuselage unsafe Print E-mail
Wednesday, 17 October 2007

A former senior engineer at Boeing’s Phantom Works research unit, fired last year under disputed circumstances, charges that the new B787 Dreamliner will be unsafe.
Vince Weldon contends that in a crash landing survivable in a metal airplane the B787’s composite materials will shatter and burn with toxic fumes. Weldon specifically alleges that:

  • The brittleness of the composite material will create a more severe impact shock to passengers than an aluminum airplane, which absorbs impact in a crash by crumpling.
  • Following a crash landing, the composite material burning in a jet-fuel fed fire would create highly toxic smoke and tiny plastic slivers that would be inhaled, seriously incapacitating or killing those aboard.
  • That the burned out remnants would pose an environmental hazard in the area around the crash site.

A Boeing official took exception to Weldon’s critique, saying, “We have to demonstrate [to the FAA] comparable crashworthiness to today’s airplanes; we are doing that.”
Further, Boeing officials said tests so far have shown that shards of composite material released in a crash are not of a shape that is easily inhaled.

An FAA official said the B787 will not be certified unless it meets all the FAA’s criteria, including the specific requirement for Boeing to show that passengers will have at least as good a chance of surviving a crash landing in a B787 as they would in current aluminum airliners. Certification is expected sometime next year, prior to first delivery, which is expected by May 2008.
The FAA appears to have rejected Weldon’s assertions, publishing criteria for B787 testing that appears to respond directly to an 11-page letter submitted in July by Weldon (See 26 September entry below).

While plastic shards and toxic smoke may be a harbinger of a new era of hazard variation, it is important to note that it will still be smoke in the fuselage that kills those who are too traumatized, aged, injured, unconscious or shocked to move quickly. When we look at the 16 September crash in Phuket, Thailand, of an MD-82, the wreckage trail and mass if misshapen metal, it’s fair to ask, what is more lethal? (See Figure A) Jagged metal and a fuel fed fire or sharded composite and burning carbon fiber against a background of a fuel-fed fire. The choice of scenarios may fall under the heading of “six of one and a half-dozen of the other.”

Figure A

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Image

Crash on landing in Phuket, Thailand of a One-Two-GO MD-82, in rainy conditions, in which 83 of the 130 persons aboard were killed. The object of B787 certification will be to make sure the composite airplane is as “safe” as the aluminum MD-82. One of the issues not addressed in the controversy over B787 certification is that airplanes are designed to be “airworthy,” and there are no separate standards for “crashworthiness.” One would like to see a separate chapter in the regulations addressing the latter goal.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 17 October 2007 )
 
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