Transcript of Hearing 12/12/97 - TWA Flight 800 Investigation

13141Mr. Thomas, is there anything Boeing is doing23following up on that?of those inspections.I believe your folks were partWere they?4MR. SWAIM: Yes, sir, the Boeing people were5with us every step of the way.We do it as a party6system, as you know.We found that there were a number7of rubber O–rings in the fuel tubing connections in the8accident airplane,and in other airplanes we looked at910that had a lot of cracking, and how that is checkedright now ––11Well,let me ask Mr. Thomas, rather than1213testifying myself. How are the integrity of the O-rings checked in service, sir?14WITNESS THOMAS:It is checked in two ways.1516One, the airplane flies daily. The fuel system, thelines through the fuel system are all internal to the17fuel tanks,so if an O–ring starts to leak, if it is in1819its own tank the fuel simply returns to the tank.If it is in another tank in a cross-feed20line,then you will see some cross tank to tank21transfer of fuel,which will show up on the gaging22system and,as we heard yesterday, the pilots have the23option of writing –– or, will write a pi–rep, a pilot’s24report,to make sure that maintenance is aware of that25tank to tank transfer,and they can go and investigateCAPITAL HILL REPORTING, INC.(202) 466-9500