FAA Seeks Takeoff Alarm Lights for Commercial Jets

The Federal Aviation Administration today proposed modifications in the takeoff alarm systems on virtually all U.S. commercial jetliners to guard against electrical failures, officials said.

The directive, which would apply to more than 3,700 commercial jets, would require installation of a warning light in the cockpit to warn pilots when the takeoff alarm system loses electrical power, the agency said.

The takeoff alarm is designed to alert a pilot that his plane, and especially such control devices as wing flaps, is not in the proper configuration for a takeoff.

Airlines have until February to comment on the proposal and then a year to comply, although some air carriers are expected to make the changes sooner, officials said.

FAA officials said the modifications are not expected to interrupt normal airline service because they probably would be done during routine maintenance and would probably take only about 20 hours of work per plane.

FAA spokesman Fred Farrar said installation of the cockpit light, which must be clearly visible to all flight crew members, is estimated to cost about $1,050 per aircraft.

Blame for the crash Aug. 16, 1987, of Northwest Airlines Flight 255 during a takeoff from Detroit’s Metro International Airport was placed on the failure of the flight crew to set the plane’s wing flaps properly for takeoff. The crashed killed 156 people.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined in its investigation of the Northwest crash that the alarm that governed the takeoff flaps did not sound because of an interruption of electrical power. Investigators could not determine conclusively what caused the power interruption, the safety board said.

At the time, however, the Air Line Pilots Assn. maintained that there was a possible inherent problem with the alarm systems that made them susceptible to electrical problems.

Investigators are also examining the possibility of an improper flap setting in the crash of a Delta Air Lines jet at Dallas last August in which 14 of the 108 people aboard were killed. There was no sounding of the takeoff alarm system in that aircraft either.