NATA Urges Industry to Comment on Proposed Change to NFPA 407

Last week, the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) issued a request to its membership, asking them to comment on a proposed change to NFPA 407- Standard for Aircraft Fuel Servicing - the national fire code adopted by most airports in the United States.  
 
On behalf of its membership and the industry, NATA submitted a Tentative Interim Amendment (TIA) – TIA 1539 – that would provide relief to hundreds of general aviation airports and FBOs from the requirement that they retrofit their fuel farms and mobile refuelers with automatic shutdown systems (aka: “scully type” systems). NATA’s proposed TIA removes the retroactive nature of the current language in the NFPA 407, applying it to only new fuel farm/fuel truck installations. 
 
“Without the change proposed in the NATA TIA, airports and FBOs would be faced with a $6,000-$10,000 bill per fuel farm loading rack, and $2,500-$3,500 bill per fuel truck, with all equipment needing to be retrofitted by June of 2021,” stated NATA Managing Director, Safety and Training, Michael France. “Your help is needed to pass this TIA. Passage of the TIA requires three-quarters vote from the technical committee overseeing NFPA 407. We encourage all stakeholders to contact the National Fire Protection Association and the 407 Technical Committee letting them know you support proposed TIA 1539.”  
 
Comments may be submitted to tias_errata_fis@nfpa.org ahead of the November 9, 2020 deadline.  
 
For questions or additional information, please contact NATA’s Steve Berry at sberry@nata.aero