The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wants to change airworthiness regulations that govern fire protection inside transport category airplanes to convert existing prescriptive requirements into what it says will be simpler, performance-based standards.
Those standards also would be applied to “any extensively used material in an inaccessible area” such as insulation, electrical wiring and cargo compartment ceilings and floor liners, the FAA said.
According to a notice published in the Federal Register Wednesday, the FAA said the changes would “result in a safety benefit by reducing the likelihood of a fatal accident from a fire in an inaccessible area.” That likelihood has increased in recent years because of in-flight fires and the growing presence of lithium ion batteries to power personal electronic devic…
