By MATHEW DEARNALEY
Auckland airport firefighters will seek information from Australia about dealing with dangers posed by the increasing use of carbon-fibre materials in aircraft.
Airservices Australia, responsible for emergency services at airports across the Tasman, is about to issue updated procedures for coping with any release of toxic broken fibres from
crashes of futuristic new aircraft such as those ordered last week by Air New Zealand.
The agency says it does not believe composite materials, which make aircraft lighter but stronger than traditional metals and allow a more pressurised and moister interior atmosphere, are any more or less hazardous to survivors and rescue workers.
But it confirmed to the Herald that its updated procedures would rely heavily on the use of a film-forming foam to "drown" any fibres before they could pierce rescuers' lungs, and wax to seal the materials on the ground or wreckage surface.
Composite materials will account for about 10 per cent of the eight Boeing 777 aircraft Air NZ is buying or leasing in the next three years, and more than 50 per cent of two 7E7 "Dreamliners" to follow in about 2010. They already comprise more than 16 per cent of the Airbus A320, of which Air NZ already has seven.
The airline emphasises that many military planes, which are almost completely made of such materials, have served for more than 20 years.
But the Australian Financial Review newspaper has reported that troops exposed to composite materials from the wrecks of two Black Hawk helicopters that collided near Townsville in 1996, killing 19 people, remain under medical surveillance.
Auckland International Airport operations manager David Hansen said his rescue crews already had the type of foam prescribed by the Australian agency, which was also a standard tool for fighting conventional fires and could be squirted at a rate of 6000 litres a minute.
But he said the airport's arsenal did not extend to the wax included in the Australian operating procedure, and his chief fire officer would contact the agency to investigate its use.
Mr Hansen said there was no cause for alarm. "This has to be kept in perspective - people design aeroplanes to stay in the air, not to have accidents and the frequency of accidents ... is very low."
