Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

This paper presents a brief summary of recent civil air transport accidents and major incidents involving fire. It updates the paper "Investigation and Characteristics of Major Fire Related Accidents in Civil Air Transports Over the Past Ten Years" l. A more detailed review of selected accident/incidents is presented including their link to safety improvements made to date in fire resistant materials and their impact on improved passenger survivability and the need for improvements in aircraft systems, such as oxygen, hydraulic and electrical, to further improve survivability. Research and Development to reduce aircraft fire fatalities is discussed and justified using accident/incident data. The paper discusses the problem of Halon replacement. Accident/incident data is used to show the need to choose replacement agents that can perform well against real aircraft fires. The need for realistic test methods is discussed. The paper concludes that additional improvements in passenger fire survivability are needed and attainable.