Department of Transportation January 30, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This action proposes to modify the Nashville International Airport, TN, Class C airspace area by removing a cutout from the surface area that was put in place to accommodate operations around an airport that is now permanently closed. The FAA is proposing this action to return the Class C airspace area to the standard configuration and enable more efficient operations at the Nashville International Airport.

This action proposes to amend Class E Airspace at Griffin, GA, as the Griffin Non-Directional Beacon (NDB) has been decommissioned and new Standard Instrument Approach Procedures (SIAPs) have been developed at Griffin-Spalding County Airport. This action would enhance the safety and airspace management of Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) operations at the airport.

This notice announces a public teleconference to share with the public results of recent FAA sponsored testing of nitrous oxide (N2O) characteristics. Nitrous oxide is an important oxidizer to developers of some commercial reusable launch vehicles. A potential hazard in nitrous oxide storage and handling is a Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion (BLEVE), which results from a sudden loss of pressure in a tank containing nitrous oxide stored under pressure above its normal boiling point. The FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation sponsored tests of liquid-phase nitrous oxide at NASA's White Sands Test Facility to empirically determine the superheat limit temperature for nitrous oxide, and to demonstrate that a BLEVE would not occur if the liquid is maintained at temperatures below this superheat limit temperature. Meeting Information: The teleconference is scheduled for Thursday, February 28, 2013, from 1:00-2:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The presentation and call-in number will be posted one week in advance at https://www.ast.faa.gov/.

The Federal Aviation Administration is requesting public comment on the Bi-County Board of Commissioners of Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties request to release airport property and granting right-of-way easements for use by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to construct an access roadway and required drainage facilities. The request consists of a permanent release of land (16.037 acres) for the roadway construction, a right-of-way drainage easement (0.2 acre) for the highway, and a right-of-way easement (0.183 acre) for the substitute sewer (supersedes previous easement) for the Lower Lackawanna Valley Sanitary Authority. The parcel is located in the Borough of DuPont and Pittstown Township, Luzerne County within the existing Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport property and consists of three areas. The first area is located southeast of the northbound off ramp (exit 178A) of Interstate 81 near its intersection with Terminal Road (SR 2059) to Navy Way Road then along the Navy Way Road alignment south to the Lidy Road intersection with Gedrich Street containing approximately 8 +/- acres. The second area is located southeast of Laurel Lane and extends southeast under the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport approach light towers and the wooded area to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Northeast Extension containing approximately 8 +/- acres. The third area is located northwest of Campbell Street along Interstate 81 and the pedestrian bridge over Interstate 81 containing approximately 0.26 +/- acres. This release request is for the purpose of permitting the Airport Owner to sell and convey title of 16.037 acres for public roadway, 0.20 acres for a drainage easement associated with the highway and 0.183 acres for a substitute sewer easement displaced due to the public road for a total of 16.42 acres. The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport will receive fair market value from the sale of the land. Areas impacted are not needed for aeronautical use for current or foreseeable future aeronautical activities. Documents reflecting the Sponsor's request are available, by appointment only, for inspection at the Airport Managers office and the FAA Harrisburg Airport District Office.

The FAA is issuing this notice to advise the public of the Seventy Fifth meeting of RTCA Special Committee 147, Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems Airborne Equipment.

Owners and operators of gas and hazardous liquid pipeline systems and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities are already required to provide telephonic reports of pipeline incidents and accidents to the National Response Center (NRC) promptly, accurately, and fully communicate the estimated extent of the damages. PHMSA is issuing this advisory bulletin to notify the owners and operators that, as required by the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011, the agency will issue a proposed rule to revise telephonic reporting regulations to establish specific time limits for telephonic or electronic notice of accidents and incidents involving pipeline facilities to the NRC.

We propose to revise an existing airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to all The Boeing Company Model 757 airplanes. The existing AD currently requires revising the maintenance program by incorporating new and revised fuel tank system limitations in the Airworthiness Limitations (AWLs) section of the Instructions for Continued Airworthiness; and requires the initial inspection of certain repetitive AWL inspections to phase-in those inspections, and repair if necessary. Since we issued that AD, we have found errors in paragraph references in the existing AD. This proposed AD would revise those paragraph references to refer to the correct paragraphs. We are proposing this AD to prevent the potential for ignition sources inside fuel tanks caused by latent failures, alterations, repairs, or maintenance actions, which in combination with flammable fuel vapors, could result in a fuel tank explosion and consequent loss of the airplane.

These special conditions are issued for the Embraer S.A. Model EMB-550 airplane. This airplane will have a novel or unusual design feature associated with the use of an Automatic Takeoff Thrust Control System (ATTCS) during go-around. The applicable airworthiness regulations do not contain adequate or appropriate safety standards for this design feature. These special conditions contain the additional safety standards that the Administrator considers necessary to establish a level of safety equivalent to that established by the existing airworthiness standards.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain The Boeing Company Model 737-600, -700, -700C, -800, -900, and -900ER series airplanes. This AD was prompted by reports from the manufacturer that center overhead stowage (COS) boxes could fall from their supports under forward load levels less than the 9 g forward load requirements as defined by certain regulations. This AD requires modifying COS boxes by installing new brackets, stiffeners, and hardware as needed. We are issuing this AD to prevent detachment of COS boxes at forward load levels less than 9 g during an emergency landing, which would cause injury to passengers and/or crew, and could impede subsequent rapid evacuation.