New FAA Rule Turns Airplane Lavatories Into Deadly Traps

Gizmodo.com

New FAA Rule Turns Airplane Lavatories Into Deadly TrapsAir Worthiness Directive 2011-04-09. That's the name of a new FAA rule that might kill you one day. It dictates that emergency oxygen masks should be removed from lavatories in every commercial plane in the United States.

The new rule was just made public by the FAA after keeping it secret for a long time in the name of "national security". It was communicated to airlines previous to this date and it has already been enacted in 6,000 airplanes across the US commercial fleet as of Friday, March 4. But neither the government nor any of these airlines have notified passengers about these changes.

Wow. Just...wow. It goes on to say that this is OK because "rapid decompression events on commercial aircraft are extremely rare." And, if you count the events (about 50 per year) against the number of flights per year, then it is extremely rare. But compare that to the number of terrorists that have used this method to blow up planes (or even attempted it) per year to that number...well then the FAA and TSA are putting our lives at risk, yet again, for NOTHING.

/TOA

Actually, the directive states that only chemical O2 generators are to be depleated or removed from passenger and freight aircraft. Those with gaseous O2 systems are unaffected. This means that the airlines will have to modify their equipent to be fed by gaseous means. Additionally, the masks will remain in place.

It does not mean that arliners will be perminantly without O2 supplies in the toilet areas.

The AD becomes effective as from 17 March. How do I know? I have it here on my desk right now.