An electrical short-circuit ignited oxygen hoses on a cargo plane that caught fire on the ground at San Francisco International Airport last year. The ABX Boeing 767, bound for Ohio, was loaded and was about to be started when the fire broke out behind the cockpit, burning a large hole in the top of the fuselage, the NTSB said in a news release. The hose at the source of the fire had a metal spring that heated up when a wire shorted and sent an electrical current through the spring. That caused the plastic hose to catch fire, which grew quickly as there was plenty of oxygen to support it. Had the fire ignited in flight, the outcome could have been “catastrophic,” the NTSB said. While that particular plane’s oxygen system had ongoing problems with leaks, that was not a factor in the fire, the NTSB said. Conductive oxygen hoses should be replaced with hoses that don’t have metal parts, the NTSB said, urging that the oxygen systems in all transport-category aircraft be inspected to make sure hoses are properly insulated from nearby electrical wires.

The discovery of weak sections of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner where the wings join the fuselage is delaying flight tests and deliveries indefinitely while engineers design a fix. Boeing announced the delay, but would not say how long it would be, in a news release this morning. In a conference call with investors and reporters this morning, officials from Boeing said they discovered the weaknesses in 36 small areas, 18 on each side of the fuselage, where the upper wing joins the fuselage. Ground-based static stress tests that didn’t agree with computer models first tipped off engineers to the problem last month. “We are talking about a one- or two-square-inch area along that upper wing join area in multiple areas,” said Scott Fancher, the general manager of the 787 program. “This is not a problem that extends out the wings or into the aircraft.” The areas include titanium, aluminum and carbon fiber parts, but officials would not say whether the problems involved delaminating carbon fiber layers. The solution will include tweaking the wings, made by Mitsubishi, as well as Fuji’s center fuselage section. While Boeing called the problem a “small scope issue,” the company said it would be several weeks before it knows how long flight tests and deliveries will be delayed. First flight had been expected this month.

Last week’s Paris Air Show gave Airbus a chance to gloat on several fronts, as it tallied 58 firm aircraft orders for the week – well beyond the two firm orders Boeing pull in but less than a quarter of last year’s tally for Airbus at Farnborough, England. And Airbus said it remains in a strong position to bid on the U.S. Air Force’s forthcoming midair refueling tanker contract, the London Telegraph reported. Airbus plans to again offer a modified A330, which would be built in Alabama. Boeing said it would give the Air Force a choice of a modified 767 or larger 777. The latter would likely be more expensive, but would be able to hold more fuel and cargo than the A330. Last fall, the Air Force withdrew the contract after awarding it to Airbus, when the Department of Defense found that Boeing had been unfairly penalized in scoring the competing offerings. But Airbus remains confident it will prevail again in a contract that could mean $35 billion of revenue for one of the companies in the coming years.