Federal Aviation Administration January 21, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Currently, during passenger boarding and deplaning, all flight attendants are required to be on board the airplane. This rulemaking would allow one required flight attendant to deplane during passenger boarding, and conduct safety-related duties, as long as certain conditions are met. In addition, this rulemaking would allow a reduction of flight attendants remaining on board the airplane during passenger deplaning, as long as certain conditions are met. The FAA has determined that these revisions to current regulations can be made as a result of recent safety enhancements to airplane equipment and procedures. These changes have mitigated the risks to passengers during ground operations that previously required all flight attendants on board the airplane during passenger boarding and deplaning.

This action proposes to amend the altitude floor of the South Florida Low Offshore Airspace Area, located off the east coast of the United States (U.S.). This action would lower the floor of the area from 2,700 feet above mean sea level (MSL) to 1,300 feet MSL. The change would provide additional altitudes for air traffic control to vector aircraft on arrival to various east coast airports, ensuring the safety of aircraft and the efficient use of airspace within the National Airspace System.

The FAA proposes to supersede an existing airworthiness directive (AD) for McCauley Propeller Systems propeller models B5JFR36C1101/114GCA-0, C5JFR36C1102/L114GCA-0, B5JFR36C1103/114HCA-0, and C5JFR36C1104/L114HCA-0. That AD currently requires initial and repetitive fluorescent penetrant inspections (FPI) and eddy current inspections (ECI) of propeller blades for cracks, and if any crack indications are found, removing the blade from service. That AD also mandates a life limit for the blades. This proposed AD would require the same inspections, add a visual inspection, and would further reduce the propeller blade life limit. This proposed AD would also require removing blades with more than 10,000 operating hours time-since-new (TSN), before further flight. This proposed AD would also require removal from service of all the propeller blades and the propeller hub if one or more propeller blades have been found cracked on a propeller assembly. This proposed AD would also require removing from service all C-5963 split retainers. This proposed AD results from 8 reports of propeller blades found cracked since May of 2006. We are proposing this AD to detect cracks in the propeller blade that could cause failure and separation of the propeller blade and loss of control of the airplane.