Aviation: Putting Fuel Near the Fire

Despite recent structural mishaps with McDonnell Douglas' problem-plagued DC- 10 jumbo jet, the aircraft manufacturer plans to add an additional fuel tank beneath the rear engine of an updated version of the plane called the MD- 11. Some startled pilots at Delta Air Lines -- which is buying the new plane -- are outraged that the designers would place 2,000 gal. of combustible fuel right under the same engine that disintegrated last month on a United Airlines DC-10. If the controversial fuel bladder had been on the ill-fated United plane when the engine disintegrated, the pilots say, the jet would have blown up at 35,000 ft.

Delta engineers and McDonnell Douglas say the extra tank inside the jet's horizontal stabilizer will better "trim" the plane in flight and is no more dangerous in the back of the plane than on the wing. "About all you'd get is a leak if an ((engine)) fragment went through that tank," claimed a McDonnell Douglas spokesman.