REVISION OF HANGAR FIRE PROTECTION STANDARDS APPROVED

As we discussed previously (HN, September 2019), the National Air Transport Association (NATA) has advocated for revisions to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) requirements for aircraft hangar fire protection systems to a risk-based approach. Existing standards are based on physical characteristics such as hangar size, type, and construction materials without considering the risk of various operations inside hangars (i.e. what actually is performed inside the hangar).

The NFPA took the recommendations to heart: their Technical Committee on Airport Facilities recently voted to approve revisions to the NFPA 409 Standards, which now call for establishing a risk-based process for defining hangar fire protection requirements. The new requirements also exempt Group II hangars from the foam system requirements currently in the NFPA 409. Group II hangars are the typical business aviation and corporate flight department hangars between 12,500 and 40,000 sq ft where no hazardous operations are performed and the fuel-spill fire risk is extremely low. This exemption is welcome news to all business and corporate flight operations who are considering building new hangars.

Unless NFPA members submit written objections, ratification of the revisions will occur at the NFPA’s next annual meeting in June 2022.