Department of Transportation January 19, 2022 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all The Boeing Company Model 787-8, 787-9, and 787-10 airplanes. This AD was prompted by a determination that radio altimeters cannot be relied upon to perform their intended function if they experience interference from wireless broadband operations in the 3.7-3.98 GHz frequency band (5G C-Band), and a recent determination that, during landings, as a result of this interference, certain airplane systems may not properly transition from AIR to GROUND mode when landing on certain runways, resulting in degraded deceleration performance and longer landing distance than normal due to the effect on thrust reverser deployment, speedbrake deployment, and increased idle thrust. This AD requires revising the limitations and operating procedures sections of the existing airplane flight manual (AFM) to incorporate limitations prohibiting certain landings and the use of certain minimum equipment list (MEL) items, and to incorporate operating procedures for calculating landing distances, when in the presence of 5G C-Band interference as identified by Notices to Air Missions (NOTAMs). The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.

This notice provides interested parties with the opportunity to comment on changes to the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) National Transit Database (NTD) reporting requirements as they relate to Urbanized Areas (UZA). Each year, transit systems use data from the Census Bureau to update their basic information (B-10) form indicating what urbanized areas and rural areas they serve, and also to complete their Federal Funding Allocation (FFA-10) form distributing their service data across those urbanized and rural areas. The Census Bureau is expected to define new UZAs based on 2020 Census data in calendar year 2022. FTA proposes that for NTD Report Year 2021 (RY 2021), transit systems would be required to complete a B-10 and FFA-10 form based on the UZAs from the 2010 Census, as usual. If the Census Bureau releases new UZAs prior to October 1, 2022, then transit systems would be required to complete new B-10 and FFA-10 forms as an addendum to the annual report at that time.

The FAA is superseding Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2005-12-08 for certain Safran Helicopter Engines, S.A. (Safran Helicopter Engines) Arrius 2B1, 2B1A, 2B1A-1, and 2B2 model turboshaft engines. AD 2005-12- 08 required replacing the software in the engine electronic control unit (EECU). This AD was prompted by a report of simultaneous loss of automatic control on both engines installed on an Airbus Helicopters Deutschland (formerly Eurocopter Deutschland) EC135 helicopter during flight. This AD requires replacement of the EECU or upgrade of the EECU software for engines with a certain EECU part number (P/N) installed. This AD also prohibits installation of an affected EECU onto any engine. The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.