FAA and Regs

Comments have closed on the FCC’s proposal to phase out 121.5 MHz ELTs but a group of senators has made it a political issue. Five members of the Senate GA Caucus, led by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., have written the head of the FCC, Julius Genachowski, urging him to drop the plan. The senators argue […]

The 149 federal contract air traffic control towers previously targeted for closure beginning June 15 will remain open through Sept. 30 the FAA said Friday, as other programs also found funding. The Department of Transportation said Friday it would fund air traffic technology and maintenance programs with $21 million by moving funds within its budget. […]

The FAA Wednesday announced that 72 control towers (PDF) and other facilities that had been slated to shut down night operations to meet budget cut requirements will stay open. The FAA had planned to eliminate night shifts at 69 towers, two regional approach control facilities and one tower that also provided approach control services. The […]

The burned wreckage of an Antonov An-2 biplane with 13 people on board that crashed last June in Russia was found late Saturday, and officials confirmed that all 13 were found dead at the scene. The airplane had taken off after 11 p.m. from an airport in the Ural mountains, reportedly by “revelers … who […]

Nearly 4,800 repair stations around the world provide aircraft repair services to U.S. carriers, and the FAA is not doing enough to oversee them, the Transportation Department Office of Inspector General said on Monday. “We found that while FAA developed a risk-assessment process to aid repair station inspectors in identifying areas of greatest concern, its […]

The FAA says it needs more information before it can decide whether to exempt the Icon A5 from the upper weight limit restriction for amphibious light sport aircraft and allow it to weigh 1680 pounds. As AOPA reported last week, the agency wrote a letter (PDF) to Icon President Kirk Hawkins that due to “the […]

Russia has ordered its airlines to avoid Syrian airspace after a charter airliner with 159 passengers and eight crew aboard escaped a possible missile attack Monday. Russia Today quoted Interfax as saying the the Nordwind Airlines A320, on a flight from an Egyptian resort to Kazan in Tatarstan, was over the mountains of Syria when […]

The FAA has cancelled all employee furloughs, and the National Airspace System should be back to normal operation. The action on Saturday followed legislation rushed through Congress to allow the agency the flexibility to use judgment over where the $637 million in sequester cuts it must make will come from. Congress acted under mounting pressure […]

Ethiopian Airlines became the first to launch a revenue flight with the Boeing 787 since early January with a flight from Kampala to Nairobi, Kenya. “We would like to thank Ethiopian Airlines for the patience, support and leadership shown throughout the period that the 787 Dreamliner has been grounded,” Boeing Commercial Airplanes President Ray Conner […]

Congress Friday approved legislation that could put an end to furloughs of air traffic controllers and other FAA personnel that have correlated with a spike in commercial flight delays, but the bill may do even more. The legislation would allow the FAA to transfer up to $253 million from other programs to fully staff controller […]