1998
January 8, 1998: FAA ordered immediate visual inspection of the tail sections of
211 late-model Boeing 737s after investigators determined that a crash in
Indonesia might have been the result of missing fasteners in the tail. Within
the 24 hours prior to issuing
this order, the agency had checked horizontal stabilizers on aircraft being
built or prepared for delivery at Boeing's Renton, Washington, factory. No major
problems were noted, but the inspectors found a loose fastener on one in-service
aircraft. All U.S.
carriers with 737s manufactured after September 20, 1995, in their fleets were
therefore required to inspect the horizontal stabilizer portion of the tail
section within 24 hours, or five flight segments, for missing fasteners.
February 6, 1998: President Clinton signed legislation into law renaming
Washington National Airport the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
February 9, 1998: George Donohue, FAA associate administrator for research and
acquisitions withdrew his nomination to be the FAA deputy administrator and
informed Department of Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater that he planned to
leave the agency.
February 10-11, 1998: FAA held its first Commercial Space Transportation
Forecast Conference.
February 11, 1998: President Clinton signed into law the FAA Research,
Engineering, and Development Authorization Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-155). The
bill mandated FAA establish a program to fund undergraduate and technical
colleges, including
Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic Serving Institutions,
to perform research on subjects of relevance to FAA. The legislation also
required the agency to assess immediately the extent of the risk to its
operations that could be identified up until the year 2000 and to develop
contingency plans to reduce or avoid the risk introduced by faulty systems that
could not be fully corrected before the target year.
February 12, 1998: Department of Transportation issued a rule mandating that,
beginning the upcoming fall, airlines must collect the full names of all
passengers traveling on international flights and be prepared to make a
passenger manifest available within three
hours of a crash. The rule was one of several Department of Transportation
actions issued on the first anniversary of the publication of the White House
Commission on Aviation Safety and Security report. February 12, 1998: FAA issued
a final rule requiring fire detection and suppression systems in aircraft cargo
compartments.
March 30, 1998: Vice President Al Gore announced that two new civilian global
positioning system (GPS) signals would be provided by the U.S. free of charge.
The announcement fulfilled a pledge made by the Department of Defense and
Department of
Transportation in March 1997 to reach a decision on a second civil frequency
within a year.
April 7, 1998: Federal aviation investigators probing the explosion of TWA Flight 800 urged inspections of the wiring in fuel monitoring systems of hundreds of Boeing 747s and possibly other Boeing jets. In a letter to FAA Administrator Jane Garvey, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall noted that his organization had found damaged wiring on the "fuel quantity indication systems" of the crashed aircraft and three other 747s. While not directly linking them with the explosion of Flight 800's fuel tank, the letter described the conditions as "potentially hazardous." Also, sources close to the investigation said the letter was not intended to indicate that the board was any closer to determining the cause of the fuel tank's violent explosion. The problems with the 747 fuel systems had been revealed earlier, and had been discussed at hearings on the crash held the previous year in Baltimore.
April 14, 1998: The Clinton Administration unveiled its Safer Skies initiative,
an aviation safety agenda consistent with one announced earlier by the aviation
industry. Designed to reduce the commercial aviation accident rate by 80 percent
over the next decade, the
initiative included mandatory equipment and training to prevent pilots from
flying mechanically fit aircraft into the ground or water. It also contained
programs to encourage cabin safety. Safer Skies concentrated FAA resources on
the most prevalent causes of aircraft accidents and used special teams of
technical experts to identify the leading causes of aviation disasters and
recommend safety advances.
April 15, 1998: FAA leased the Atlantic City International Airport to the South
Jersey Transportation Authority. FAA and the authority signed a 50-year lease
and cooperative agreement transferring 2,000 acres of land, including airport
runway and taxiway
systems.
April 16, 1998: RTCA's Free Flight Steering Committee recommended that, through
a core capability limited deployment process to be undertaken through 2002, FAA
should adopt its proposed free flight program to implement six technologies at
selected air route
air traffic control centers. The technologies included: Traffic Management
Advisory (TMA), Passive Final Approach Space Tool (pFAST), User Request
Evaluation Tool (URET), Collaborative Decision Making (CDM), Controller-Pilot
Datalink
Communications (CPDLC), and Surface Movement Advisor (SMA).
April 21, 1998: FAA published a final rule on licensing requirements for the
launch of expendable vehicles from federal sites.
May 4, 1998: FAA announced plans to introduce computer-based training for
security screening personnel at the nation's busiest airports. The training was
a module in the Screener Proficiency Evaluation and Reporting System
(SPEARS) being developed by
the agency to select, train, evaluate, and monitor the performance of employees
who operated the X-ray screening checkpoints. FAA awarded Safe Passage
International an $11 million contract on this date to install the SPEARS
computer-based training
workstations and train instructors to use it at up to 60 airports.
May 10, 1998: FAA ordered all older Boeing 737s temporarily grounded until
mechanics inspected high-voltage fuel tank wiring for problems that could cause
a fire or explosion. FAA gave airlines seven days to complete the inspections.
The action came after United
Airlines mechanics found evidence of electrical arcing on wiring removed from
another 737. Thomas McSweeny, FAA director of aircraft certification, stated
that nearly every one of the first 13 aircraft inspected prior to the order
exhibited some level of chafing on
the insulation that separated the wiring from the metal conduits carrying the
wiring through the fuel tank to fuel pumps. May 14, FAA expanded the order to
include somewhat newer 737 planes and added a set of wires exempted from the
original inspection. In some cases, when mechanics performed inspections of
newer planes already in the shop for major repairs, they found chafed
high-voltage wires.
May 13, 1998: FAA unveiled a new, data-driven air carrier inspection program
called the Air Transport Oversight System (ATOS) to enable FAA inspectors to
spot safety trends and catch problems before they could lead to an incident or
accident.
May 15, 1998: FAA commissioned the countrys 34th Terminal Doppler Weather Radar
(TDWR) at Newark International Airport. It also commissioned an airport
surveillance radar (ASR-9) there. The ASR-9 replaced the ASR-7 at Newark,
providing a clearer
picture of weather and aircraft than the older system.
June 2, 1998: The Department of Transportation Inspector General issued a report
saying that, despite the fact that adverse weather conditions had caused or
contributed to nearly 25 percent of aviation accidents in the last decade, FAA
still had failed to provide
leadership in aviation weather programs.
June 3, 1998: Department of Transportation Secretary Slater announced the
award of a contract to Advanced Management Technologies, Inc., to provide
expertise in the adaptation of the global positioning system (GPS) to civil
aviation needs. The contract
was worth $27 million over three years, with four one-year options that could
bring the full potential contract value up to $62 million. Under the contract,
the company would provide technical engineering and program management support
for current and future
satellite and satellite augmentation systems for FAA.
June 5, 1998: FAA ordered the retraining of 10,000 air traffic controllers
nationwide. Two specific incidents and a general increase in controller errors
nationwide prompted this action. An April 3 incident had not been revealed to
the public, but shortly before the
order was released, an Air Canada Airbus A320 jet, taking off from La Guardia,
flew directly over a US Airways DC-9 jet as it broke off a landing. The two
passenger jets came as close as 20 feet from colliding and the incident was
widely reported. The agency
ordered mandatory proficiency training for controllers working in airport towers
handling takeoffs and landings.
June 5, 1998: Effective on this day, a FAA reorganization took place that:
Abolished two offices - The Office of the Associate Administrator for
Administration - The Office of Business Information and Consultation
Established four offices - Assistant Administrator for Financial Services/CFO -
Assistant Administrator for Financial Services/Director of Budget - Assistant
Administrator for Human Resource Management - Assistant Administrator for
Region/Center Operations Moved two offices - Office of Flight Oversight became
Flight Standards Service under the Office of the Administrator for Regulation
and Certification - Moved the Washington Flight Program Office (Hangar Six)
became the Aviation Systems Standards Office within the Airway Facilities
organization Transferred the duties of two offices - The duties of the Freedom
of Information Act Office were assumed within the Office of the Assistant
Administrator for Region/Center Operations - The duties of the Headquarters
Facilities Management Office were assumed within the Office of Acquisitions
under the Associate Administrator for Research and Acquisitions
June 15, 1998: Department of Transportation Secretary Slater and National Air
Traffic Controllers Association President Michael McNally announced a new labor
agreement between FAA and NATCA. September 9, NATCA members voted to approve the
new
contract. August 28, FAA and NATCA formally signed the new five-year pact in
which a federal labor union negotiated wages, for the first time, with a
government agency.
June 15, 1998: FAA completed construction of NAS infrastructure management
System (NIMS) facility located in Reston, Virginia. The facility was used to
evaluate human factors, validate various commercial-off-the-shelf products and
interfaces that comprise
NIMS, and to develop, verify, and refine initial operational procedures.
June 16, 1998: The National Transportation Safety Board reported that the
probable cause of the crash of Fine Air Flight 101 onto a Miami street the
previous summer was a combination of the actions of an inexperienced crew and
the effects of an improperly
loaded cargo. Federal investigators said that both the airline and FAA shared
responsibility for failing to correct numerous safety problems. NTSB further
chose this crash to address broader problems in FAA oversight of all airlines,
drawing parallels to
the 1996 fatal crash, also attributed to hazardous cargo, of a ValuJet DC-9.
Several NTSB members suggested FAA should clean house at its flight standards
office in Miami, the headquarters for five major all-cargo companies. NTSB's
official report on the cargo
crash said the Miami office knew of deficiencies in Fine Air's operations, but
did not correct them.
June 17, 1998: FAA unveiled a step in its congressionally authorized personnel
reform efforts a test of a new compensation plan for about 1,200 agency
employees. The new plan replaced the traditional grade and step base pay method
with a structure of pay
bands whose value was determined by comparison with similar jobs in government
and private industry. The program linked compensation with performance.
June 1998: FAA established a formal safety risk management policy through Order
8040.4. The new policy provided for a formal, but flexible, approach for
managing safety risks associated with high consequence decisions.
July 23, 1998: FAA proposed new measures to reduce potential ignition sources in
Boeing 747 center wing tanks. The proposed airworthiness would require operators
of Boeing 747 aircraft registered in the U.S. to take the following actions:
Inspect the center fuel tank to detect damage, disbonding or incorrect
installation of wiring and components.
Test to ensure the electrical bonding of center fuel tank components to the
aircraft's structure is within limits, reworking it if necessary. On certain
747s, measure the insulation resistance of the fuel quantity indication system (FQIS)
to ensure that it is within limits. Also on certain aircraft, operators would
have to replace FQIS components with new hardware, and replace silver-
plated FQIS wires with new nickel-plated wiring. In certain airplanes, install
a flame arrestor into the inlet line of the scavenge pumps
of the center fuel tank. Under the proposed rule, replacement of the FQIS
components and wiring would have to be done within 24 months, or 20 years from
the date the plane was built, which ever would be later. All other actions would
have to be accomplished within 24 months. The rule would require operators to
report inspection results to Boeing within ten days.
July 1998: FAA's new Sexual Harassment Accountability Board began operations.
The Board had responsibility for providing timely response to complaints while
making senior officials accountable for their workplace environments. (See July
2000.) August 11, 1998: The National Transportation Safety Board urged mandatory
inspections of the fuel-pump control shaft on about one-third of all commercial
jet aircraft engines including those in most Boeing 727s and 737s and
McDonnell Douglas DC-9s and MD- 80s. Several incidents including one on
September 6, 1997, in which a Boeing 737 was destroyed on takeoff from Najran,
Saudi Arabia, as well as a Delta Airlines in-flight problem prompted the
letter from NTSB Chairman Jim Hall to FAA Administrator Jane
Garvey. In the Saudia incident, the crew noticed a control panel light
indicating that the right engine's exhaust was dangerously hot. When the pilot
tried to throttle back, the engine remained at a high power level, the board
said.
August 21, 1998: Law enforcement and transportation officials in the U.S.
capital adopted tighter security measures, stepping up patrols at tourist
attractions, at federal buildings and in the 95-mile subway system. Military
installations across the region also
increased security, causing backups at some bases as military police conducted
stricter- than-normal identification checks at gates. FAA announced that
officers and bomb- sniffing dogs would conduct more sweeps at U.S. airports and
increase scrutiny of
passengers. Security personnel were instructed to use hand-held devices to
randomly screen passengers for traces of explosives. The District of Columbia
Metropolitan Police Department, the U.S. Park Police, and the U.S. Capitol
Police all increased patrols in key
areas of the District and ordered officers to be more aware of their
surroundings. The agencies declined to say how many more officers were on
patrol.
August 21, 1998: FAA issued a NPRM that would ban, in certain air carrier
operations, the transportation of devices designed to generate oxygen
chemically. This ban would include older devices that have been charged and
discharged as well as newly
manufactured devices that have yet to be charged. (See December 30, 1996.)
August 26, 1998: FAA published a final rule in the Federal Register implementing
financial responsibility and insurance coverage requirements for space launch
activities it regulated. This action codified practices required under the
Federal Government's commercial space launch licensing procedures. The new
regulations required a launch licensee to obtain insurance or otherwise to
demonstrate financial responsibility to protect itself, the customer, the U.S.
Government, and contractors and subcontractors of against claims for third-party
losses and federal property damage resulting from the licensed launch
activities. The agency would set insurance requirements according to a
risk-based determination of the maximum probable loss that might result from the
licensed activities. Launch participants, whether from industry or government,
were required to enter into reciprocal waivers of claims in which each party
agreed to absorb certain losses it might sustain as a result of the licensed
activity. In addition, subject to the funds being appropriated, the U.S.
Government agreed to pay successful third-party claims in excess of the required
insurance, up to $1.5 billion s adjusted for inflation. The final rule was
effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register to allow those
subject to the rule to change existing practices covered by it, although the
rule did not substantially change those practices previously carried out through
license orders.
August 27, 1998: The National Transportation Safety Board attributed the
deaths of 29 eople killed in a Comair commuter plane crash in a field near
Detroit in the winter of 1997 to FAA's failure to heed decades of information
about the effect of icing on aircraft
performance. NTSB also said that Comair and its pilots contributed to the crash,
and that the crew must share some responsibility for operating in poor weather
conditions at a speed too low to provide a margin of safety.
September 2, 1998: A Swissair jumbo jet en route from John F. Kennedy
International Airport in New York to Geneva with 228 people on board crashed off
the southern coast of Nova Scotia late at night while trying to make an
emergency landing. Canadian
aviation officials said the three-engine McDonnell Douglas MD-11 had been
diverted to Halifax International Airport, which lies about ten miles to the
north of the Nova Scotian capital, after its flight crew reported smoke in the
cockpit or passenger cabin about two
hours after take-off. (See November 12, 1998.) September 8, 1998: The 100th
commercial space launch licensed by the U.S. took off from Vandenberg Air Force
Base. (See August 26, 1998; September 24, 1998.) September 24, 1998: FAA issued
a space launch site operator's license to the Alaska Aerospace Development Corp.
The license allowed commercial rocket launches on the
southern tip of Kodiak Island. Alaska joined California, Florida, and Virginia
as states with FAA-licensed state or commercially operated space launch
facilities. It was, however, the first spaceport not co-located with a federally
operated launch range. FAA
earlier issued commercial space launch site licenses for the operation of
spaceports on leased property at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California; Cape
Canaveral Air Station, Florida; and at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops
Island, Virginia.
September 24, 1998: FAA awarded a $14.2 million dollar contract to Northrop
Grumman Corporation to develop equipment that would provide warnings to air
traffic controllers and pilots of hazardous wind shear and microburst events.
Called the Weather Systems Processor (WSP), it would forecast the arrival of
wind gust fronts and tracks storm motion, providing a complete picture of
current and projected hazardous weather conditions which might impact runway and
airport usage. Intended be used in
conjunction with Airport Surveillance Radar Model-9, WSP would be a low cost
detection system suitable for installation at medium and high air traffic
density airports. Its functional capability would be similar to that provided by
Terminal Doppler Weather Radar, a legacy system which FAA was then deploying at
45 major airports subject to heavy thunderstorm activity.
September 25, 1998: FAA announced the implementation of a final rule requiring
employment background investigations and criminal history checks for airport
security checkpoint screeners and screener supervisors. This new rule responded
to the mandate in
the Federal Aviation Reauthorization Act of 1996 and was additionally
recommended by the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security. The
rule also required airport operators and air carriers to audit employment
history investigations.
September 28, 1998: FAA ordered airlines to inspect, within 60 days, fuel boost
pump wiring on Boeing 737-100 through -500 series aircraft with 20,000 to 30,000
flight hours. The directive also required the addition of a layer of Teflon
sleeving to protect the fuel pump wires.
September 30, 1998: FAA announced a $932,613 contract to Sensis Corporation, to
develop an identification system for transponder-equipped aircraft operating on
airport taxiways and runways. The airport target identification system would
give airport
controllers detailed information about aircraft and vehicles operating on the
ground, including position, speed, and aircraft identification.
October 1, 1998: FAA, which had launched its original aging aircraft program
after an Aloha jetliner lost a chunk of its roof in 1988, announced a companion
program, the aging transport non-structural systems plan, to help ensure that
aircraft systems, such as
those for wiring and fuel, did not fail as they grew older. The program, which
grew out of the investigation of the in-flight explosion of Trans World Airlines
Flight 800 that killed 230 people in 1996, included stepped-up inspections of
wiring, a long-term research
program, and a model-by-model assessment of each aircraft type together with
other items.
October 1, 1998: FAA implemented the Air Transport Oversight System, an air
carrier oversight process that advocated a systems approach to FAA certification
and surveillance oversight. The new process would combine system safety
techniques with
risk management principles to ensure that air carriers had built safety
considerations into their operating systems.
October 8, 1998: FAA, with assistance from the Helicopter Safety Advisory
Conference (HSAC), implemented the world's first Instrument Flight Rules (IFR)
Grid System in the Gulf of Mexico. FAA designed this navigational route
structure, completely independent of ground-based navigation aids (NAVAIDs), to
facilitate helicopter IFR operations to offshore destinations. The Grid System
was defined by over 300 offshore waypoints located 20 minutes apart (latitude
and longitude). These waypoints have five-letter identifiers systematically
based so that operators and controllers can visualize the relative location. To
simplify flight planning inflight data input and navigation, these waypoints
were integrated into the computer database within the GPS receivers. Both flight
crews and controllers used the grid system, which assisted them by: allowing for
more direct routing; reducing the manual workload that controllers performed to
provide separation from other helicopters; and reducing delays.
October 9, 1998: FAA Administrator Jane Garvey and NASA Administrator Daniel
Goldin signed an agreement that established a new partnership in pursuit of
improved aviation safety, airspace system efficiency, and aircraft environmental
concerns. The
agreement created an executive board comprised of senior managers from both
agencies who would monitor progress and ensure that complementary aviation and
commercial space transportation goals were achieved through a coordinated
planning effort.
October 14, 1998: FAA announced that within six months it would develop a new
test specification for aircraft insulation that would contribute to increased
fire safety. When available for use, this new test standard would be required
for use in the manufacture of
all applicable aircraft. The Civil Aviation Administration of China in 1996
strongly recommended new tests after a Chinese Eastern MD-11 fire in Beijing in
1995.
October 15, 1998: A FAA Boeing 727 receiving signals from both U.S. and European
satellite navigation networks performed successful flight tests at Iceland's
Keflavik Airport. The aircraft performed a series of category I precision
approaches to the runway
using onboard equipment that received signals from the FAA national satellite
test bed, a forerunner to WAAS, and the United Kingdom's Northern European
Satellite Test Bed.
October 28, 1998: FAA recommended that pilots not take impotence drugs within
six hours of flying because it could affect their ability to distinguish between
the blues and greens found in cockpit instrument and runway lights.
October 28, 1998: FAA officials told a public hearing in Rockville, Maryland,
that, while a federal plan to consolidate four of their region's air traffic
control facilities would lead to an overall reduction in airplane noise, it also
might aggravate the problem for some
local communities. Under the plan, FAA would close the separate terminal radar
control (TRACON) facilities at Dulles International, Reagan National, and
Baltimore- Washington International airports and Andrews Air Force Base and open
an overall
center in Loudoun County or Fauquier County.
November 6, 1998: President Clinton dedicated the new Northwest Arkansas
Regional Airport in Highfill, Arkansas. He told the audience his administration
was working to make the national aviation system better able to handle the
anticipated 50-percent
increase in global air travel in the coming seven years. He added that FAA and
other agencies were working together
to convert our air traffic control
system to satellite technology, to change the way we inspect older aircraft, and
most important over the long
run, to combat terrorism with new equipment, new agents, and new methods."
November 12, 1998: Reacting to concerns raised by the September 2 crash of
Swissair Flight 111, FAA ordered airlines to inspect two lighting dimmer
switches that could overheat and emit smoke when installed in the cockpits of
McDonnell Douglas MD-11
aircraft. McDonnell Douglas had issued a service bulletin three years before
recommending replacement of the switches. One of the problems reported by the
crew of Flight 111 before it crashed was smoke in the cockpit. (See September 2,
1998; December 9, 1998.) November 20, 1998: FAA proposed to require foreign air
carriers flying to and from the United States to implement security measures
identical to those required of U.S. air carriers serving the same airports.
November 23, 1998: FAA certified the eXaminer 3DX 6000 system manufactured by
L-3 Communications as the second explosives detection system to meet the
agency's certification requirements.
December 3, 1998: In an emergency airworthiness directive, FAA ordered all
Boeing 747 operators to carry more fuel in the center wing tank to ensure that
the pumps are immersed in fuel when they are operating.
December 9, 1998: FAA issued an airworthiness directive ordering inspection and
possible replacement of electrical wiring above the forward passenger doors of
McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft. The order required a one-time visual
inspection
within ten days to detect problems such as nicks, fraying or chafing in the
wiring above the left and right forward passenger doors. As part of the inquiry
into the Swissair 111 crash off Nova Scotia in September, FAA learned that
damaged electrical wires were
found near the forward passenger doors of an MD-11 during regularly scheduled
heavy maintenance. Further examination showed that, when the doors were raised
to the open position, sliding panels above the doors moved inward and could have
chafed the
electrical wiring in those areas. The condition, if not fixed, might have led to
an electrical fire in the passenger cabin.
December 9, 1998: FAA and Chile's Director General of Civil Aeronautics
completed the first test flights in Chile demonstrating the capabilities and
benefits of the Wide Area Augmentation System installation at the Arturo Merino
Benitez International Airport.
December 15, 1998: Department of Transportation Secretary Slater announced that
all flights of all U.S. carriers, both domestic and international, were now to
be completely smoke-free.
December 16, 1998: FAA issued a notice to airmen advising all civil aircraft
operators that hostilities had begun in the airspace over Iraq and might also
occur in the airspace over nearby nations and waters in the Arabian Peninsula,
including the Persian Gulf and
the Red Sea. FAA advised that operators flying in the area should strictly
comply with aircraft identification procedures and monitor international
emergency frequencies.
December 17, 1998: FAA's small airplane directorate issued the first U.S.
type certificate for a Russian type design, clearing the way for import into the
United States. The type certificate was issued at a ceremony at the Ilyushin
plant attended by senior Russian
officials and by U.S. Ambassador James Collins. An all-metal, two-seat
propeller-driven aircraft powered by a single 210 HP Teledyne Continental Motors
IO-360ES engine with a Hartzell propeller, the Ilyushin IL-103 was issued
Certificate Number A45CE. It was certified in the utility category.
December 21, 1998: FAA Administrator Jane Garvey announced a new streamlined
administrative action process that would reduce paperwork and shorten the time
it took to resolve certain violations that did not pose a serious threat to
aviation safety. At that time,
it was taking an average of 75 days to resolve an administrative violation.
Under the new program, FAA hoped to cut that delay to as little as seven days in
some cases. Inspectors could use the new process to deal with alleged violations
that did not require extensive
investigation.