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The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered the inspection of older Boeing 737's to check their wiring. These safety precautions have been implemented because of the explosion of TWA Flight 800 nearly two years ago, which is thought to have been caused by faulty wiring. Flight 800 was a Boeing 747. Phil Ponce discusses the inspections with FAA Administrator Jane Garvey.

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PHIL PONCE: Since the explosion of TWA Flight 800 nearly two years ago, aviation regulators have focused on faulty wiring as one of that disaster's most likely causes. Flight 800 was a Boeing 747. Now, the Federal Aviation Administration has ordered the immediate inspection of older Boeing 737's to check their wiring. This is the closest the FAA has come to grounding an aircraft model in almost 20 years. And here to tell us about it is FAA Administrator Jane Garvey. Administrator Garvey, thank you for coming and welcome.

JANE GARVEY, FAA Administrator: Thank you very much.

PHIL PONCE: What does your order say?

JANE GARVEY: Well, it says pretty much what you have just described, and that is it calls for the immediate inspection of the older 737's. That's those airplanes that have over 50,000 flight hours. And it really says that the inspection must take place before the planes return to passenger service.

PHIL PONCE: And what was it that made the order--that caused you to make the order immediate? Was there a specific event, or events that prompted the immediacy of this?

JANE GARVEY: Well, as you pointed out, we have been focused on wiring since the TWA accident. And we did complete the inspections on 747's. Our next threshold, if you will, was to ask Boeing to take a look at the--or to do a study for us on the older aircraft--737's. They were in the midst of that when Continental had a fuel leak that caused us some concern. And so just about last Thursday we issued a directive asking for the inspection of the 737's. On Saturday we found another such incident, and that really caused us to say we really need to have all of these planes inspected now and inspected before the return to service.

PHIL PONCE: And that Saturday incident, can you give us a little more detail on what it is you discovered?

JANE GARVEY: We really discovered abrasion in the most extreme sense, that is, the wires were bare, and that's a tremendous cause of concern for us. So we asked for the inspections of all the planes. And I want to say it happened very quickly. We really heard from Continental last Monday. We issued the directive on Thursday, and then we issued another directive very early Sunday morning.

PHIL PONCE: Well, now you brought a model that gives an idea of what it was that--what it was that you were finding and also what you're concerned about. Explain to us what it is you have and what the problem is.

JANE GARVEY: Well, this really is an illustration, and this really is the conduit. This is the conduit that you can find in the--connected with the wiring. Here's the wiring here, and if you--as you can see--this is really the Teflon that covers the wiring, that gives it a kind of protection.

PHIL PONCE: That white piece of tape.

JANE GARVEY: The white piece.

PHIL PONCE: That's the Teflon.

JANE GARVEY: Exactly. And when the Teflon is worn away and when it is exposed, then you can have the kind of bare wiring that you can see right here. So what we're--

PHIL PONCE: And you can actually see the copper wiring coming through the middle.

JANE GARVEY: That's right.

PHIL PONCE: That little spot right there.

JANE GARVEY: That's right.

PHIL PONCE: What causes that wire to corrode like that, the coating on the wire?

JANE GARVEY: It's really a vibration. And, remember, this is many, many thousands of hours of airplane travel. And the vibration that can occur can cause that Teflon to wear away and then expose the wiring. And our great concern, of course, is that either holes are burned through the conduit and sparks can occur and you can have either a fire or an explosion. So that's why it's a cause of concern.

PHIL PONCE: Back up a second. This model that you're showing, that's plastic, but in real life this is actually aluminum.

JANE GARVEY: That's right.

PHIL PONCE: So what happens is that bare wire can cause an arc--

JANE GARVEY: That's right.

PHIL PONCE: An actual spark between the wire and the inside--

JANE GARVEY: That's exactly right.

PHIL PONCE: --of the aluminum tubing.

JANE GARVEY: That's exactly right.

PHIL PONCE: And that mixed with the fuel obviously can cause a fire and explosion.

JANE GARVEY: That's right. That's right. And so what we're asking the mechanics and the inspectors to do is to look at all the wiring to make sure that the Teflon is in place; if it's not to replace it and then to put on another Teflon sleeve, if you will, a sleeve that will go over that and then they slip it back in the conduit.

PHIL PONCE: What are your findings showing? How many planes have you looked at, and how many of them have had--have shown evidence of this kind of corrosion?

JANE GARVEY: Well, first of all, we've been very impressed with how quickly the air carriers have dealt with this problem with us. And they're really more than halfway through the fleet right now, which I think is very good news. We've got about 96 planes that have been inspected. And the pattern is holding true, the pattern that we saw over the weekend, and that is about half of them are showing some signs of abrasion. So this was the right thing to do. This was the right action to take.

PHIL PONCE: So about half of the fleet, which numbers roughly 180, half of them have been inspected?

JANE GARVEY: That's right.

PHIL PONCE: And half of those have shown a problem, is that what you expect of that--

JANE GARVEY: Well, we think--

PHIL PONCE: It strikes some people as high.

JANE GARVEY: Well, now the abrasion will vary in severity, so some of the abrasion is very, very minor. Some of it is a little bit more cause of concern, but this is the pattern that we expected. And this is holding true to form. So we'll see what--as we continue with the inspections--what else we're able to learn.

PHIL PONCE: How old are the planes that are affected? Because obviously this is not the entire 737 fleet. You've got--you've got, what, more than a thousand U.S. registered 737's.

JANE GARVEY: That's right.

PHIL PONCE: This just--this order is aimed at the older ones. And how old are they?

JANE GARVEY: They're about 50,000 and above in flight hours and looking at the numbers, they are planes that are generally older than 16 years old.

PHIL PONCE: What do you want the public to realize as far as the safety of flying in these older planes once they're inspected and once they're fixed?

JANE GARVEY: Well, I, first of all, want them to understand, as I think they do, that we're taking this action because of the safety of the traveling public. That's our top priority. We are focused on that segment of the fleet that has--that is the oldest. It's the segment of the fleet that we've had some concern about. And so we're taking the steps that are necessary. And it's a small portion of the fleet, I might add. It's only about 13 percent. But we're taking the steps with the airlines to make sure they're inspected, to make sure that they're repaired, and to make sure that they're back in service.

PHIL PONCE: Now, you have expanded the order to include newer 737's, yes? Which ones?

JANE GARVEY: That's right. That's the fleet from about 40,000 hours to 50,000. So we started with 50,000 and above. We now lowered that a bit to 40,000.

PHIL PONCE: And how long is it going to take before all these inspections are completed?

JANE GARVEY: We have about seven days for the airlines to do that, but they're well underway. Some of the airlines have begun those, obviously focusing on the older ones first. But they have already begun on the 40,000. So they'll be well on their way in the next day or so.

PHIL PONCE: Some FAA observers are saying that this time around the FAA has acted--has acted unusually quickly. Is this part of a new posture on the FAA's part to be more pro active, or how would you describe it?

JANE GARVEY: Well, I think it is the FAA being pro active. I think it's taking steps, where it's necessary, to really raise the bar on safety. It's very important for all of us. And we take our job seriously. We want to do it the right way. And I think we're taking good, strong, pro active steps to ensure the safety of the traveling public.

PHIL PONCE: Administrator Garvey, thank you for being with us.

JANE GARVEY: Thank you.

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