Department of Transportation May 2, 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On March 26, 2019, PHMSA published a notice to solicit public comment on a request for a special permit from Gulf South Pipeline Company, LP, seeking relief from compliance with certain requirements in the federal pipeline safety regulations. The comment period closed on April 25, 2019. PHMSA is issuing this notice to extend the comment period for an additional 15 days to give the public more time to review the special permit and its associated supporting documents. At the conclusion of the 15-day extension comment period, PHMSA will review the comments received from this notice as part of its evaluation to grant or deny the special permit request.

These special conditions are issued for the Boeing Model 787-8 airplane. This airplane, as modified by Greenpoint Technologies, Inc. (Greenpoint), will have a novel or unusual design feature when compared to the state of technology envisioned in the airworthiness standards for transport category airplanes. This design feature is single- occupant, side-facing seats with airbag devices in shoulder belts, and a floor-level, leg-flail-prevention device to limit the axial rotation of the upper leg. 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.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, FAA invites public comments about our intention to request the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval to renew an information collection. The collection involves aeronautical information that the FAA uses to carry out agency missions related to aviation flying safety, flight planning, airport engineering and federal grants analysis, aeronautical chart and flight information publications, and the promotion of air commerce as required by statute. The information to be collected will be used for airspace studies conducted under 49 U.S.C. 329(b) and will be published in flight information handbooks and charts for pilot use.

We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Bombardier, Inc., Model BD-100-1A10 airplanes. This AD was prompted by an incident of uncommanded nose wheel steering (NWS) in-service; subsequent investigation revealed that the steering selector valve (SSV) is susceptible to jamming in the open position due to particulate contamination of the hydraulic system. This AD requires modifying the left-hand hydraulic system of the NWS control system and, for certain airplanes, torqueing the fittings on a certain tube assembly. We are issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.