1997-2020 Update to FAA Historical Chronology: Civil Aviation and the Federal Government, 1926-1996

reported that the USAF had concluded that although the pilot in the Nations Air incident had broken no rules, in the future, its pilots would query controllers before intercepting unknown aircraft detected in flight. February 26, the Navy stated that a military controller’s failure to follow proper procedures had caused the Nations Air incident. February 6, 1997: Invision Technologies announced installation of the first two CTX 5000 SP explosives detection systems at Chicago O’Hare and New York Kennedy airports. (See December 23, 1996; February 12, 1997; May 6, 1997.) February 12, 1997: In compliance with Executive Order 13015, the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security (Gore Commission) released its final report to President Clinton. Its recommendations included: reducing the aviation fatal accident rate by a factor of five within ten years, requiring installation of enhanced Ground Proximity Warning Systems on all civil and military passenger aircraft (see November 6, 1996), expanding the aging aircraft program to cover non-structural systems, passing legislation to protect employees who report safety/security violations, ending the exemption of passengers younger than age two from restraint systems, and requiring smoke detectors in the cargo holds of all passenger aircraft. Air traffic control recommendations included: national airspace system (NAS) modernization by 2005, stronger leadership in global positioning system (GPS) implementation, requiring NAS users to fund its development and operation, and identifying the frequency spectrum needed for air traffic control. Security recommendations included: federal funding for a major security improvement, new FAA standards for baggage matching and passenger profile screening, U.S. Post Office examination of all packages over one pound, and a U.S. proposal for the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to begin verifying international security compliance. The commission also recommended measures designed to improve response to aviation disasters. Responding to the Gore Commission report, FAA and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced a joint initiative, in partnership with DOD and industry, to reduce aircraft accident rates five-fold within ten years. (See January 14, 1997; January 15, 1997; February 6, 1997; December 15, 1997.) February 15, 1997: President Clinton used his powers under the Railway Labor Act to stop a strike by American Airlines pilots a few minutes after it began. An emergency board was established to try to find an acceptable compromise during a 60-day cooling- off period. March 19, American and the Allied Pilots Association stated they had reached a tentative agreement on a new contract. April 4, the union’s board voted in favor of the contract, which included higher pay than previously offered. May 5, union members voted to approve the new five-year contract. 4 February 17, 1997: Rodney E. Slater became Secretary of Transportation. Outgoing Secretary Federico Peña had been nominated to be Secretary of Energy, but his appointment had not yet been confirmed. (See December 20, 1996.) February 18, 1997: The Jacksonville ARTCC became the last of 21 centers to implement the voice switching and control system (VSCS). May 21, FAA formally dedicated the VSCS. (See June 30, 1995; August 27, 2012.) February 19, 1997: FAA and National Weather service launched an experimental aviation digital data service, via the Internet, to provide weather information to the aviation community. February 21, 1997: FAA and Interior Department announced a delay in implementing aspects of a rule, announced on December 31, 1996, on flights over the Grand Canyon. Most of the rule’s provisions would be implemented as planned on May 1, 1997; however, a restructuring of the park airspace and air routes would not be implemented until January 1998. (See May 12, 1997.) February 27, 1997: Department of Transportation and DOD announced an agreement to provide a second frequency for its GPS, and guarantee uninterrupted availability of the L2 frequency for civil users in the interim. The development of a second frequency was consistent with a recommendation by the Gore Commission. (See March 29, 1996; March 30, 1998.) February 28, 1997: President Clinton signed legislation reinstating certain aviation taxes from March 6 through September 30. Included were the 10 percent airline ticket tax, 6.25 percent domestic air freight tax, an international departure tax of $6 per ticket, and excise charges on non-commercial aviation fuel. The law also gave the Treasury Department authority to transfer aviation tax revenue to the Aviation Trust Fund. February 28, 1997: FAA released an independent 90-day assessment, as mandated by the Federal Aviation Reauthorization Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-264), to assess the scope of its financial needs through 2002. The assessment, performed by the Coopers & Lybrand consulting firm, concluded FAA had no system to account for its costs, and that FAA managers generally could not manage money properly. This assessment was similar to other studies that concluded that FAA needed to institute a fundamental change in the way it made decisions, and that those who funded the agency, as well as those who used its services, had to afford it greater flexibility in how it did business. In response, FAA stated that the report showed the need for reform to bridge the gap, over the next six years, between its projected responsibilities and its anticipated resources. (See September 30, 1996.) March 5, 1997: Department of Transportation Secretary Slater announced U.S. airlines had recorded a third straight year of strong growth. The announcement followed release of FAA’s annual commercial aviation forecast. 5 March 13, 1997: FAA announced that it had installed two new systems, the telecommunications processor and the interim situation display, at the New York and Oakland ARTCC. These installations would benefit flights over the Pacific and Caribbean. March 14, 1997: FAA formally accepted, ahead of schedule, the display system replacement (DSR) system. (See April 27, 1995; January 20, 1999.) March 14, 1997: FAA published two proposed airworthiness directives requiring retrofit of Boeing 737 rudder components. (See January 15, 1997; January 13, 1999.) March 19, 1997: FAA published a rulemaking proposal to update and clarify regulations regarding the licensing of commercial space launches. (See November 15, 1995; May 22, 1997.) March 20, 1997: FAA published an interim final rule establishing fees, effective May 19, 1997, for providing air traffic and related services to aircraft that overfly the United States but do not land or takeoff from U.S. territory. (See May 19, 1997.) March 21, 1997: FAA announced that, with 33 of 39 commuter air carriers now in compliance, the aviation industry had successfully implemented the commuter rule. Adopted by the government in December 1995, the rule required airlines operating aircraft with 10 to 30 seats to meet the same, or equivalent, safety standards as the major airlines. (See December 14, 1995.) March 27, 1997: Although a section of a wing flap fell off of Delta Boeing 767 near Dallas, the plane landed with no passenger or crew injuries. April 2, FAA ordered inspections of flaps for all 767s with at least 25,000 hours or 10,000 flights. March 27, 1997: FAA initiated phase 1 of reduced vertical separation minima (RVSM) procedures in the North Atlantic. Reducing separation from 2,000 to 1,000 had major implications for capacity and fuel efficiency in oceanic operations. This was the first reduction of separation over the Atlantic in 40 years. (See April 9, 1997.) April 1, 1997: A groundbreaking ceremony for the world’s first full-scale airport pavement test facility took place at FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center. FAA and Boeing partnered to build the facility. (See May 20, 1996; April 12, 1999.) April 3, 1997: Unofficial reports began circulating that the Clinton Administration would nominate Acting Highway Administrator Jane Garvey for the post of FAA administrator and George Donohue, currently FAA associate administrator for research and acquisitions, as her deputy. (See June 11, 1997.) April 5, 1997: The new Washington National Airport air traffic control tower began operating. Rising 201 feet, the state-of-the-art facility was 114 feet taller than the tower 6 that had been in use since the airport’s opening in 1941. Transportation Secretary Slater dedicated the new tower on May 12, 1997. April 7, 1997: In response to North Korea’s opening of its airspace to routine international flights, the U.S. government lifted its prohibition on paying overflight fees to North Korea. April 24, FAA cited such factors as North Korea’s military rules of engagement as justification, however, for publishing a special federal aviation regulation (SFAR) prohibiting certain U.S. flights in the area. April 9, 1997: FAA established requirements affecting the operations of U.S.-registered aircraft in designated RVSM airspace. This designation referred to airspace between flight level (FL) 290 and FL 410 – in which a minimum of 1,000 feet separation, rather than the 2,000-foot minimum separation generally required above FL 290, had to be maintained between aircraft. These regulations required operators and their aircraft to be properly qualified and equipped – as well as to obtain approvals certifying these conditions – to conduct flight operations while separated by 1,000 feet. RVSM was to be applied only in designated areas, and the first such area was to include certain flight levels in the North Atlantic minimum navigation performance specifications airspace. (See March 27, 1997; February 24, 2000.) April 15, 1997: The tail of a German-made BK-117 helicopter reportedly broke off in flight, causing the aircraft to crash into New York’s East river, killing one occupant and injuring two. April 25, FAA issued an airworthiness directive requiring operators of certain models of helicopters manufactured by Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH to inspect the tail booms for cracks before the craft would be permitted to fly. April 26, FAA grounded all 132 of the BK-117s in the United States pending checks for cracks in certain key components. April 22, 1997: FAA published a proposal to accept applications, beginning December 1, for participation in an airport privatization pilot program established by the Federal Aviation Reauthorization Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-264). (See April 24, 2017.) April 23, 1997: FAA issued an airworthiness directive requiring visual inspections to detect stress and replace any faulty ball bearings in GE90 engines on five Boeing 777s. The directive followed ball bearing failures on two British 777s. April 24, 1997: FAA unveiled its inflight aircraft icing plan, based on recommendations from international experts. The plan was the final phase of a three-phased program that FAA had announced in 1994. (See October 31, 1994.) April 28, 1997: FAA selected Hughes Information Technology Systems, a unit of Hughes Aircraft Company, as its integration-services contractor to support the national airspace system infrastructure management system (NIMS) program. The contract was estimated to be worth $100 million over seven years. (See June 15, 1998.) 7 May 2, 1997: FAA announced the $12.2 million purchase of additional trace detection security equipment for use at the nation’s busiest airports. (See February 12, 1997; September 25, 1998.) May 4, 1997: FBI Director Louis Freeh announced the evidence in the TWA Flight 800 crash pointed to mechanical failure and emphasized the need to bring the investigation to a close. (See January 7, 1997; December 8, 1997.) May 6, 1997: Airlines began a two-week test of matching bags with passengers at selected airports nationwide. (See February 6, 1997; February 12, 1997; May 17, 1997.) May 12, 1997: FAA announced its selection of the FAA/NASA Joint University Program for Air Transportation to receive the first Excellence in Aviation Research award. May 12, 1997: FAA proposed an airworthiness directive requiring ice detector systems on Embraer 120 aircraft. (See January 9, 1997.) May 12, 1997: FAA proposed converting two flight-free zones over the Grand Canyon into new flight corridors. The agency stated that one of these was to be an “incentive corridor” for quieter aircraft, and the other was intended to address Native American concerns by preventing overflights of their cultural properties and sacred sites. (See February 21, 1997; May 19, 1997.) May 14, 1997: FAA awarded a contract worth up to $250 million for computer support services to the Department of Agriculture’s National Information Technology Center. The center would establish the integrated computing environment - mainframe and networking (ICE-MAN) system, a follow-on to the computer resource nucleus contract. May 20, due to questions raised by industry about this controversial government-to- government award, the FAA associate administrator for research and acquisitions suspended work on the ICE-MAN contract. FAA's ICE-MAN acquisition team and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) officials reviewed the original contract, and determined that the program met OMB's A-76 guidelines. June 10, FAA lifted the suspension of the contract and formally announced resumption on June 20, 1997. Agriculture delayed resumption of work until the deadline for appeals had passed. May 14, 1997: FAA issued an airworthiness directive requiring operators to check an engine fire switch override button on Boeing 777s. May 14, 1997: The Air Transport Association stated that its members would begin a program to install fire suppression systems in cargo holds of passenger planes. The first of these could be installed by the last quarter of 1997. The program would take five years to complete. (See November 14, 1996; June 10, 1997.) May 17, 1997: As part of the aircraft hardening program, FAA and British aviation authorities set off four simultaneous explosions in the cargo hold of an old Boeing 747 at Leicester, England. (See May 6, 1997; May 4, 1998.) 8 May 19, 1997: Under an interim final rule, FAA began collecting fees for overflight services, as scheduled – having, on the previous Friday, turned down requests from the International Air Transportation Association and the Air Transportation Association of Canada for a 90-day delay. A U.S. Court of Appeals decision in January 1998 determined FAA's calculation of fees was inconsistent with the statute and prohibited the collection of the fees. (See March 20, 1997; June 5, 2000.) May 19, 1997: Department of Transportation and Interior Department established a National Park Overflights Working Group to develop a plan to ensure preservation of natural quiet in the parks. The group would exist for 100 days after the date of its initial meeting, scheduled for May 20-21, 1997. Its membership included representatives of the aviation industry, parks, and conservation groups. (See May 12, 1997.) May 21, 1997: To allow commercial airlines to benefit from technological improvements, FAA published a rule permitting commercial aircraft pilots to activate their autopilot at less than 500 feet above ground level during takeoff and climb. Such actions, however, would have to be authorized by the FAA administrator and would have to be performed as required in the carrier’s operating specifications. May 22, 1997: FAA issued its second privately-operated spaceport license to Spaceport Florida for the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. (See March 19, 1997; December 19, 1997.) May 28, 1997: The National Civil Aviation Review Commission, lead by Norman Mineta, held the first of two public hearings regarding the financing of certain FAA services. Seventeen organizations testified. September 25, the commission made its "Preliminary Finance Report” available to the public. October 28, a second, and final, public hearing was held. December 11, Mineta issued the commission's final report, "Avoiding Aviation Gridlock and Reducing the Accident Rate: A Consensus for Change," which noted airline passengers were doomed to massive airport congestion and more dangerous skies unless FAA received a radical overhaul. The 21-member panel called on lawmakers and the White House to improve FAA management and finances. It urged a partial privatization of the agency and steps to shield aviation regulation from partisan budget battles. The proposed reforms would allow FAA to beef up funding for the air traffic control system and airports to accommodate a rise in air traffic. (See September 30, 1996.) May 28, 1997: FAA sent a letter to Raytheon indicating its concern about delays in the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) project. FAA proposed to elevate STARS software development to high risk status because of delays in meeting project milestones. (See September 16, 1996; September 11, 1997.) May 30, 1997: FAA grounded the MD-900 Explorer helicopter until further notice following the discovery of a broken adjustable collective drive link during a McDonnell- Douglas post-flight inspection on May 8. 9 May 30, 1997: FAA selected the firm of Booz-Allen & Hamilton to perform a congressionally-mandated review of the agency’s new acquisition system. (See April 1, 1996.) June 10, 1997: FAA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that would require the installation of fire detection and suppression systems in the sealed cargo holds of all commercial aircraft. The airline industry would have three years from the time the rule became final to meet the new standards. According to the agency, the new rule would affect approximately 3,000 passenger aircraft and another 300 cargo planes. Most long- range passenger aircraft, such as the new Boeing 777 jetliners, already met the new standard. (See May 14, 1997; February 12, 1998.) June 11, 1997: President Clinton announced his intention to nominate Jane Garvey as FAA administrator and George Donohue as her deputy. (See April 3, 1997; July 31, 1997; February 9, 1998.) July 1, 1997: The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), reporting on a commuter plane collision in which most passengers survived the impact but died in a subsequent fire, recommended that FAA find ways to fund fire and rescue protection at small airports served by small planes. NTSB said the collision of a United Express Beechcraft 1900 with a private twin-engine Beechcraft King Air at Quincy, Illinois, on November 19 took place because the pilots of the King Air failed to monitor properly a common radio frequency on which the United Express pilot repeatedly reported her position and intention to land. Although finding the King Air crew primarily responsible, NTSB presented a list of other safety issues, including a radio transmission by a novice pilot that probably confused the United Express crew, the inability of surviving passengers to open jammed emergency exits, and a lack of fire and rescue capability at the airport. July 3, 1997: The Federal Trade Commission decided not to block the merger between the Boeing Company and McDonnell Douglas Corporation. The newly strengthened Boeing would control two-thirds of the world's airplane market. August 1, the two companies formally merged. (See December 15, 1996.) July 19, 1997: A Cessna 172 and Beech Bonanza mid-air collision near Chicago's Meigs field killed all seven onboard the two aircraft. The accident resulted in a safety review of FAA's contract tower program. July 31, 1997: The U.S. Senate confirmed Jane Garvey as FAA administrator. August 4, Garvey was sworn in as the 14th FAA administrator, the first to be appointed to a five- year term. (See June 11, 1997.) August 6, 1997: A South Korean Boeing 747 jetliner crashed in rugged jungle terrain while attempting to make an early-morning landing on the South Pacific island of Guam, killing more than 200 people. At least 35 of those aboard survived the fiery crash. The 10 crash occurred as Korean Air Flight 801 approached Won Pat International Airport in darkness and heavy rain with 254 passengers and crew aboard. August 7, 1997: FineAir Flight 101, a DC-8, crashed on takeoff from Miami after improperly secured cargo slid. The excess weight in the rear portion of the aircraft caused a severe aft center of gravity condition, rendering the crew unable to lower the aircraft's nose. The airplane stalled, crashed into a field, and slid across busy 72nd Avenue into a strip-mall parking lot. August 14, 1997: The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis dismissed a standing protest by Wilcox Electric against FAA for having awarded the then-$500 million wide area augmentation system (WAAS) contract to Hughes Aircraft. FAA had terminated the Wilcox contract on April 26, 1996, claiming Wilcox, the original prime contractor, had failed to live up to provisions of the contract. FAA subsequently awarded Hughes Aircraft a sole-source award for WAAS development. (See March 29, 1996; September 23, 1997.) August 18, 1997: A final rule requiring that digital flight data recorders (black box) collect more information went into effect. The number of specific areas of flight information, called data parameters, increased to 88 for newly manufactured aircraft and increased from 11 to 17 or 18 for older aircraft. (See July 16, 1996; May 3, 1999.) August 19, 1997: NTSB ruled that all parties, including FAA, executive boardrooms, and the "shop room floor,” shared some culpability for the crash of ValuJet Flight 592. The aircraft probably would not have crashed into the Florida Everglades on May 11, 1996, if FAA had followed a decade-old recommendation to require fire detection and suppression systems in aircraft cargo holds. NTSB also listed as "probable causes" the failure of the maintenance contractor SabreTech to properly "prepare, package, identify and track" hazardous oxygen generators improperly placed in the cargo hold, and ValuJet's failure to oversee SabreTech. In addition, NTSB said FAA's failure to adequately monitor ValuJet's maintenance program and its maintenance contractors, the failure to respond adequately to prior oxygen generator fires, and the airline's failure to train its employees about handling hazardous material also contributed to the causes of the tragedy. (See May 11, 1996.) August 25, 1997: FAA awarded Harris Corporation a contract to replace the current system by which flight service stations provide crucial information such as emergency assistance and weather briefings to pilots. Under the operational and supportability implementation system (OASIS) program contract – valued at more than $110 million, including options – Harris would provide flight planning and weather information to general aviation pilots nationwide. FAA planned to modernize up to 61 flight service stations over the next ten years. (See July 1, 2002.) September 11, 1997: Representative Connie Morella, chair of the House Science Subcommittee on Technology, met with the administrator to discuss installing the STARS in the Washington National Airport terminal radar control (TRACON) facility. 11 FAA committed to making a decision in four to six weeks on whether it would be possible to deploy an interim solution at a select few major terminal facilities, like Washington National Airport, that would provide STARS hardware operating in tandem with existing software. This would provide controllers an improved operational capability, including color displays, until the STARS software was ready to meet mission requirements. The schedule called for STARS to be ready for initial operation at the airport in September 2000. (See May 28, 1997; October 30, 1997.) September 22, 1997: Bombardier Aerospace announced FAA had granted final certification of Learjet's Model 45, the world's first business jet designed and manufactured entirely by computer. The aircraft was Learjet's first all-new jet in 30 years and its third aircraft to be certified since the company was acquired by Bombardier Inc., in 1990. September 23, 1997: FAA sponsored a demonstration flight into Tijuana International Airport showing the benefits of the WAAS. The agency called this the first big step toward establishing a seamless air navigation system across North America. (See August 14, 1997; October 1, 1997.) September 23, 1997: FAA announced the selection of a team of universities to serve as the FAA Center of Excellence for Airworthiness Assurance. (See October 1992; January 28, 2004.) October 1, 1997: Testifying before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Aviation, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Department of Transportation Inspector General Kenneth Mead criticized FAA management of the WAAS program. He stated, "We found that FAA did not use a consistent method for cost estimating. An April 1994 cost benefit analysis for WAAS reflected an estimated total life-cycle cost through the year 2014 at $1.4 billion. Program documentation in July 1997, reflects an estimate of total life-cycle costs for WAAS, through the year 2016, at over $2.4 billion. Our analysis of this showed that FAA has been slow to fully recognize all life-cycle costs of systems . . . In our opinion, FAA’s efforts to include life-cycle cost estimates for all satellite related systems and supporting activities will establish an understanding of the financial requirements and greatly facilitate decision making. Once established, these projected life-cycle costs should be integrated into FAA’s plan to ensure effective transition to the new technologies." (See September 23, 1997; October 20-22, 1997.) October 1, 1997: FAA implemented a new cost accounting system, with research and acquisitions personnel at Washington, DC, headquarters serving as a pilot for the system. The labor distribution module of the system was a key component of the effort. October 6, 1997: FAA commissioned the first precision runway monitor at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport. The system allowed simultaneous independent instrument landing system (ILS) approaches to parallel runways spaced less than 4,300 feet apart. 12 October 14, 1997: John Denver, a licensed pilot who had a home near Monterey, California, was killed when his fiberglass plane crashed about 100 yards offshore shortly after having taken off at Monterey Airport. October 20-22, 1997: FAA and Italy's Ente Nationale Di Assistenza Al Volo conducted flights at Ciampino Airport near Rome to test the capabilities of the WAAS to function in European airspace. A FAA Boeing 727 used signals from both the U.S. national Satellite Test Bed and Italy's Mediterranean Test Bed to complete the test flights. (See October 1, 1997; October 15, 1998.) October 22, 1997: FAA began collecting fees, effective this date, for the production of certification-related services pertaining to aeronautical products manufactured or assembled outside the United States. October 29, 1997: The Task Force on Assistance to Families of Aviation Disasters, co- chaired by Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater and NTSB Chairman James Hall, issued 61 recommendations to ensure the families of the victims of aviation disasters received prompt and compassionate assistance. October 30, 1997: National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) President Michael McNally told the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Aviation, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure that "NATCA has made it very clear to FAA that there are problems with” STARS “that must be rectified before it can be a workable product within the terminal environment." At the urging of Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA), FAA agreed to work with the Inspector General in an attempt to resolve the dispute with NATCA over STARS. Wolf asked FAA to report by December 15 on progress in resolving cost, delay, and human factors issues. (See September 11, 1997; April 26, 1999.) November 20, 1997: FAA awarded a four-year contract to Lockheed Martin with a potential value of up to $1 billion, to modernize the air traffic control system. The initial four-year national airspace system implementation support contract (NISC II) contract was worth approximately $350 million with as many as three two-year extension options. Under the terms of the NISC II contract, Lockheed Martin would supply engineering, planning, automation, environmental analysis, and other services to FAA. November 26, 1997: FAA proposed two airworthiness directives asking airlines to find and fix potential ignition sources in or near the central fuel tanks of Boeing 747 aircraft. (See January 21, 1997; December 12, 1997.) November 27, 1997: Department of Transportation Inspector General Kenneth Mead issued a report in which he stated that some FAA inspectors assigned to check airplane maintenance and electrical systems had not been trained. Mead found some employees took no training courses before they joined the agency or after they were hired. And, workers who had been trained may not have taken additional courses to learn about changes in the systems they were inspecting. 13 December 8, 1997: NTSB began hearings on the crash of TWA Flight 800 in Baltimore, Maryland. (See May 4, 1997.) December 12, 1997: FAA issued an airworthiness directive (AD) expanding the inspection and replacement of the Teflon wire coating used in the stainless steel wire conduits on Boeing 747 fuel boost pumps and the pumps used in jettisoning fuel. The AD immediately superseded the December 23, 1996, AD requiring inspections and replacements for Boeing 747 airplanes that used aluminum conduits. (See November 26, 1997; December 19, 1997.) December 15, 1997: FAA and the Air Transport Association announced a new partnership to eliminate controlled flight into terrain. Air Transportation Association member airlines would voluntarily equip 4,300 of their aircraft with advanced terrain awareness warning systems, such as the enhanced ground proximity warning system. Installation of the system was expected to be substantially complete during 2003. (See February 12, 1997; March 29, 2000.) December 16, 1997: President Clinton signed into law the Foreign Air Carrier Family Support Act requiring foreign carriers to file a plan by June 15, 1998, addressing the needs of families of victims of an aviation disaster in the United States. December 19, 1997: Top FAA and NTSB officials, often at odds over aviation safety issues, agreed to move forward aggressively with plans to make Boeing 747 fuel tanks safer. The agreement between FAA Administrator Jane Garvey and NTSB Chairman Jim Hall followed board hearings on the crash of Trans World Airlines Flight 800 off the coast of Long Island on July 17, 1996, which killed 230 people. Investigators determined that the plane's center fuel tank exploded and split the plane apart, but did not yet know what sparked the explosion. (See December 12, 1997; April 7, 1998.) December 19, 1997: Barry Valentine stepped down as acting FAA deputy administrator and retired from the agency. (See February 1, 1997.) December 19, 1997: FAA issued a launch site operators license to Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority to operate a space launch facility at Wallops Island, Virginia. (See May 22, 1997; February 10-11, 1998.) December 28, 1997: A powerful blast of air turbulence sent a United Airlines jumbo jet with 393 people aboard into a sudden 1,000-foot drop over the Pacific Ocean, killing one passenger and injuring 110 others. The Boeing 747 (United Flight 826) was about 1,100 miles east of Japan after leaving Tokyo for Honolulu when it encountered the turbulence. December 31, 1997: During Calendar Year 1997 public agencies collected $1.2 billion in passenger facility charge revenue. 14 1998 January 8, 1998: FAA ordered immediate visual inspection of the tail sections of 211 late-model Boeing 737s after investigators determined that a crash in Indonesia might have been the result of missing fasteners in the tail. Within the 24 hours prior to issuing this order, the agency had checked horizontal stabilizers on aircraft being built or prepared for delivery at Boeing's Renton, Washington, factory. No major problems were noted, but the inspectors found a loose fastener on one in-service aircraft. All U.S. carriers with 737s manufactured after September 20, 1995, in their fleets were required to inspect the horizontal stabilizer portion of the tail section within 24 hours, or five flight segments, for missing fasteners. February 6, 1998: President Clinton signed legislation into law renaming Washington National Airport the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. February 9, 1998: George Donohue, FAA associate administrator for research and acquisitions withdrew his nomination to be FAA deputy administrator and informed Department of Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater that he planned to leave the agency. (See June 11, 1997.) February 10-11, 1998: FAA held its first annual Commercial Space Transportation Forecast Conference. (See December 19, 1997; April 21, 1998.) February 11, 1998: President Clinton signed into law the FAA Research, Engineering, and Development Authorization Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-155). The bill mandated FAA establish a program to fund undergraduate and technical colleges, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic Serving Institutions, to perform research on subjects of relevance to FAA. The legislation also required the agency to assess immediately the extent of the risk to its operations that could be identified up until the year 2000 and to develop contingency plans to reduce or avoid the risk. February 12, 1998: Department of Transportation issued a rule mandating, beginning the upcoming fall, airlines must collect the full names of all passengers traveling on international flights and be prepared to make a passenger manifest available within three hours of a crash. The rule was one of several Department of Transportation actions issued on the first anniversary of the publication of the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security report. February 12, 1998: FAA issued a final rule requiring fire detection and suppression systems in aircraft cargo compartments. (See June 10, 1997; March 19, 2001.) March 30, 1998: Vice President Al Gore announced that two new civilian global positioning system (GPS) signals would be provided by the U.S. free of charge. The announcement fulfilled a pledge made by the Department of Defense and Department of 15 Transportation in March 1997 to reach a decision on a second civil frequency within a year. (See February 27, 1997; June 3, 1998.) April 7, 1998: Federal aviation investigators probing the explosion of TWA Flight 800 urged inspections of the wiring in fuel monitoring systems of hundreds of Boeing 747s and possibly other Boeing jets. In a letter to FAA Administrator Jane Garvey, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman (NTSB) Jim Hall noted that his organization had found damaged wiring on the "fuel quantity indication systems" of the crashed aircraft and three other 747s. While not directly linking them with the explosion of Flight 800's fuel tank, the letter described the conditions as "potentially hazardous." Also, sources close to the investigation said the letter was not intended to indicate that the board was any closer to determining the cause of the fuel tank's violent explosion. The problems with the 747 fuel systems had been revealed earlier, and had been discussed at hearings on the crash held the previous year in Baltimore. (See December 19, 1997; May 10, 1998.) April 14, 1998: The Clinton Administration unveiled its Safer Skies initiative, an aviation safety agenda consistent with one announced earlier by the aviation industry. Designed to reduce the commercial aviation accident rate by 80 percent over the next decade, the initiative included mandatory equipment and training to prevent pilots from flying mechanically fit aircraft into the ground or water. It also contained programs to encourage cabin safety. Safer Skies concentrated FAA resources on the most prevalent causes of aircraft accidents and used special teams of technical experts to identify the leading causes of aviation disasters and recommend safety advances. April 15, 1998: FAA leased the Atlantic City International Airport to the South Jersey Transportation Authority. FAA and the authority signed a 50-year lease and cooperative agreement transferring 2,000 acres of land, including airport runway and taxiway systems. April 16, 1998: RTCA's Free Flight Steering Committee recommended FAA adopt its proposed free flight program to implement six technologies at selected air route air traffic control centers. The technologies included: traffic management advisory (TMA), passive final approach space tool (pFAST), user request evaluation tool (URET), collaborative decision making (CDM), controller-pilot datalink communications (CPDLC), and surface movement advisor (SMA). (See January 15, 1997; September 30, 1999; February 4, 2000; March 30, 2000.) April 21, 1998: FAA published a final rule on licensing requirements for the launch of expendable vehicles from federal sites. (See February 10-11, 1998; August 26, 1998.) May 4, 1998: FAA announced plans to introduce computer-based training for security screening personnel at the nation's busiest airports. The training would be a module in the screener proficiency evaluation and reporting system (SPEARS) being developed by the agency to select, train, evaluate, and monitor the performance of employees who operated the X-ray screening checkpoints. FAA awarded Safe Passage International an $11 million 16 contract on this date to install the SPEARS computer-based training workstations and train instructors to use it at up to 60 airports. (See May 17, 1997; August 21, 1998.) May 10, 1998: FAA ordered all older Boeing 737s temporarily grounded until mechanics inspected high-voltage fuel tank wiring for problems that could cause a fire or explosion. FAA gave airlines seven days to complete the inspections. The action came after United Airlines mechanics found evidence of electrical arcing on wiring removed from a 737. Thomas McSweeny, FAA director of aircraft certification, stated nearly every one of the first 13 aircraft inspected prior to the order exhibited some level of chafing on the insulation that separated the wiring from the metal conduits carrying the wiring through the fuel tank to fuel pumps. May 14, FAA expanded the order to include somewhat newer 737 planes and added a set of wires exempted from the original inspection. In some cases, when mechanics performed inspections of newer planes already in the shop for major repairs, they found chafed high-voltage wires. (See April 7, 1998; July 23, 1998.) May 13, 1998: FAA unveiled a new, data-driven air carrier inspection program called the air transportation oversight system (ATOS) to enable FAA inspectors to spot safety trends and catch problems before they could lead to an incident or accident. (See October 1, 1998.) May 15, 1998: FAA commissioned the country’s 34th terminal doppler weather radar (TDWR) at Newark International Airport. It also commissioned an airport surveillance radar (ASR-9) there. The ASR-9 replaced the ASR-7, providing a clearer picture of weather and aircraft than the older system. June 2, 1998: The Department of Transportation Inspector General issued a report which stated despite the fact that adverse weather conditions had caused or contributed to nearly 25 percent of aviation accidents in the last decade, FAA had failed to provide leadership in aviation weather programs. June 3, 1998: Department of Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater announced a contract to Advanced Management Technologies, Inc., to provide expertise in the adaptation of GPS to civil aviation needs. The contract was worth $27 million over three years, with four one-year options that could bring the full potential contract value up to $62 million. Under the contract, the company would provide technical engineering and program management support for current and future satellite and satellite augmentation systems for FAA. (See March 30, 1998; January 29, 1999.) June 5, 1998: FAA ordered the retraining of 10,000 airport tower air traffic controllers nationwide. Two specific incidents and a general increase in controller errors nationwide prompted the action. An April 3 incident had not been revealed earlier to the public, but shortly before the order was released, an Air Canada Airbus A320 jet, taking off from La Guardia, flew directly over a US Airways DC-9 jet as it broke off a landing. The two passenger jets came as close as 20 feet from colliding and the incident was widely reported. 17 June 5, 1998: Effective on this day, a FAA reorganization (see October 1, 1996; January 2001) took place that:  Abolished two offices  The Office of the Associate Administrator for Administration  The Office of Business Information and Consultation  Established four offices  Assistant Administrator for Financial Services/CFO  Assistant Administrator for Financial Services/Director of Budget  Assistant Administrator for Human Resource Management  Assistant Administrator for Region/Center Operations  Moved two offices  Office of Flight Oversight became Flight Standards Service under the Office of the Administrator for Regulation and Certification  Moved the Washington Flight Program Office (Hangar Six) became the Aviation Systems Standards Office within the Airway Facilities organization  Transferred the duties of two offices  The duties of the Freedom of Information Act Office were assumed within the Office of the Assistant Administrator for Region/Center Operations  The duties of the Headquarters Facilities Management Office were assumed within the Office of Acquisitions under the Associate Administrator for Research and Acquisitions June 15, 1998: Transportation Secretary Slater and National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) President Michael McNally announced a new labor agreement between FAA and NATCA. September 9, NATCA members voted to approve the new contract. August 28, FAA and NATCA formally signed the new five-year pact in which a federal labor union negotiated wages, for the first time, with a government agency. (See January 7, 2003.) June 15, 1998: FAA completed construction of its national airspace system (NAS) infrastructure management system (NIMS) facility located in Reston, Virginia. The facility would be used to evaluate human factors, validate various commercial-off-the- shelf products and interfaces that comprise NIMS, and to develop, verify, and refine initial operational procedures. (See April 28, 1997.) June 16, 1998: NTSB reported that the probable cause of the crash of Fine Air Flight 101 onto a Miami street was a combination of the actions of an inexperienced crew and the effects of an improperly loaded cargo. Investigators said both the airline and FAA shared responsibility for failing to correct numerous safety problems. NTSB also highlighted the crash to address broader problems in FAA oversight of all airlines, drawing parallels to the 1996 fatal crash, also attributed to hazardous cargo, of a ValuJet DC-9. Several NTSB members suggested FAA should clean house at its flight standards office in Miami, the headquarters for five major all-cargo companies. NTSB's official report on the crash said the Miami office knew of deficiencies in Fine Air's operations, but did not correct them. 18 June 17, 1998: FAA unveiled a step in its congressionally authorized personnel reform efforts – a test of a new compensation plan for about 1,200 agency employees. The new plan replaced the traditional grade and step base pay method with a structure of pay bands whose value was determined by comparison with similar jobs in government and private industry. The program linked compensation with performance. (See April 1, 1996.) June 1998: FAA established a formal safety risk management policy in Order 8040.4. The new policy provided for a formal, but flexible, approach for managing safety risks associated with high consequence decisions. July 23, 1998: FAA proposed new measures to reduce potential ignition sources in Boeing 747 center wing tanks. The proposed airworthiness directive would require operators of Boeing 747 aircraft registered in the U.S. to take the following actions:  Inspect the center fuel tank to detect damage, disbonding or incorrect installation of wiring and components.  Test to ensure the electrical bonding of center fuel tank components to the aircraft's structure is within limits, reworking it if necessary.  On certain 747s, measure the insulation resistance of the fuel quantity indication system (FQIS) to ensure it is within limits. Also on certain aircraft, operators would have to replace FQIS components with new hardware, and replace silver- plated FQIS wires with new nickel-plated wiring.  In certain airplanes, install a flame arrestor into the inlet line of the scavenge pumps of the center fuel tank. Under the proposed rule, replacement of the FQIS components and wiring would have to be done within 24 months, or 20 years from the date the plane was built, which ever would be later. All other actions would have to be accomplished within 24 months. The rule required operators to report inspection results to Boeing within ten days. (See May 10, 1998; August 11, 1998.) July 1998: FAA's new Sexual Harassment Accountability Board began operations. The Board had responsibility for providing timely response to complaints while making senior officials accountable for their workplace environments. (See July 2000.) August 11, 1998: NTSB urged mandatory inspections of the fuel-pump control shaft on about one-third of all commercial jet aircraft engines – including those in most Boeing 727s and 737s and McDonnell Douglas DC-9s and MD-80s. Several incidents – including one on September 6, 1997, in which a Boeing 737 was destroyed on takeoff from Najran, Saudi Arabia, as well as a Delta Airlines in-flight problem – prompted the letter from NTSB Chairman Jim Hall to FAA Administrator Jane Garvey. In the Saudia incident, the crew noticed a control panel light indicating the right engine's exhaust was dangerously hot. When the pilot tried to throttle back, the engine remained at a high power level, the board said. (See July 23, 1998; September 21, 1998.) 19 August 21, 1998: Law enforcement and transportation officials in the U.S. capital adopted tighter security measures, and increased patrols at tourist attractions, federal buildings, and in the 95-mile subway system. Military installations across the region also increased security, causing backups at some bases as military police conducted stricter- than-normal identification checks at gates. FAA announced officers and bomb-sniffing dogs would conduct more sweeps at U.S. airports and increase scrutiny of passengers. Security personnel were instructed to use hand-held devices to screen randomly passengers for traces of explosives. The District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, the U.S. Park Police, and the U.S. Capitol Police all increased patrols in key areas of the District and ordered officers to be more aware of their surroundings. The agencies declined to say how many more officers were on patrol. (See May 4, 1998; September 25, 1998.) August 21, 1998: FAA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that would ban, in certain air carrier operations, the transportation of devices designed to generate oxygen chemically. The ban would include older devices that had been charged and discharged as well as newly manufactured devices that had yet to be charged. (See December 30, 1996.) August 21, 1998: FAA issued Advisory Circular 150/5220-22, Engineered Materials, which contained standards for the planning, design, and installation of engineered materials arresting systems (EMAS) in runway safety areas. FAA and Engineered Arresting Systems Corp. (ESCO), a division of Zodiac Aerospace, developed EMAS, under a cooperative research and development agreement. EMAS, which consisted of a layer of crushed concrete positioned at the end of runways, slowed and stopped aircraft in runway overruns. John F. Kennedy International Airport installed the first EMAS in 1998. (See May 8, 1999.) August 26, 1998: FAA published a final rule in the Federal Register implementing financial responsibility and insurance coverage requirements for space launch activities it regulated. This action codified practices required under the federal government's commercial space launch licensing procedures. The new regulations required a launch licensee to obtain insurance or otherwise to demonstrate financial responsibility to protect itself, the customer, the U.S. Government, and contractors and subcontractors against claims for third-party losses and federal property damage resulting from the licensed launch activities. The agency would set insurance requirements according to a risk-based determination of the maximum probable loss that might result from the licensed activities. Launch participants, whether from industry or government, were required to enter into reciprocal waivers of claims in which each party agreed to absorb certain losses it might sustain as a result of the licensed activity. In addition, subject to the funds being appropriated, the U.S. Government agreed to pay successful third-party claims in excess of the required insurance, up to $1.5 billion s adjusted for inflation. The final rule was effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register to allow those subject to the rule to change existing practices covered by it, although the rule did not substantially change those practices previously carried out through license orders. (See April 21, 1998; September 8, 1998.) 20 August 27, 1998: NTSB attributed the deaths of 29 people killed in a Comair commuter plane crash in a field near Detroit in the winter of 1997 to FAA's failure to heed decades of information about the effect of icing on aircraft performance. NTSB also said that Comair and its pilots contributed to the crash, and the crew must share some responsibility for operating in poor weather conditions at a speed too low to provide a margin of safety. (See January 9, 1997.) September 2, 1998: A Swissair jumbo jet en route from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to Geneva with 228 people on board crashed off the southern coast of Nova Scotia late at night while trying to make an emergency landing. Canadian aviation officials said the three-engine McDonnell Douglas MD-11 had been diverted to Halifax International Airport, located about ten miles to the north of the Nova Scotian capital, after its flight crew reported smoke in the cockpit or passenger cabin about two hours after take-off. (See November 12, 1998.) September 8, 1998: The 100th commercial space launch licensed by the U.S. took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base. (See August 26, 1998; September 24, 1998.) September 24, 1998: FAA issued a space launch site operator's license to the Alaska Aerospace Development Corp. The license allowed commercial rocket launches on the southern tip of Kodiak Island. Alaska joined California, Florida, and Virginia as states with FAA-licensed state or commercially operated space launch facilities. It was, however, the first spaceport not co-located with a federally operated launch range. FAA earlier issued commercial space launch site licenses for the operation of spaceports on leased property at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California; Cape Canaveral Air Station, Florida; and at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia. (See September 8, 1998; March 15, 1999.) September 24, 1998: FAA awarded a $14.2 million-dollar contract to Northrop Grumman Corporation to develop equipment to provide warnings of hazardous wind shear and microburst events to air traffic controllers and pilots. Called the weather systems processor (WSP), it forecast the arrival of wind gust fronts and tracks storm motion, providing a complete picture of current and projected hazardous weather conditions which might impact runway and airport usage. Intended be used in conjunction with airport surveillance radar model-9, WSP would be a low cost detection system suitable for installation at medium and high air traffic density airports. Its functional capability would be similar to the terminal doppler weather radar; a legacy system which FAA was then deploying at 45 major airports subject to heavy thunderstorm activity. (See April 25, 2001.) September 25, 1998: FAA announced the implementation of a final rule requiring employment background investigations and criminal history checks for airport security checkpoint screeners and screener supervisors. The new rule responded to a mandate in the Federal Aviation Reauthorization Act of 1996, and had been recommended by the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security. The rule also required airport 21 operators and air carriers to audit employment history investigations. (See August 21, 1998; November 20, 1998.) September 28, 1998: FAA ordered airlines to inspect, within 60 days, fuel boost pump wiring on Boeing 737-100 through -500 series aircraft with 20,000 to 30,000 flight hours. The directive also required the addition of a layer of Teflon sleeving to protect the fuel pump wires. (See August 21, 1998; October 1, 1998.) September 30, 1998: FAA announced a $932,613 contract to Sensis Corporation to develop an identification system for transponder-equipped aircraft operating on airport taxiways and runways. The airport target identification system would give airport controllers detailed information about aircraft and vehicles operating on the ground, including position, speed, and aircraft identification. October 1, 1998: FAA, which had launched its original aging aircraft program after an Aloha jetliner lost part of its roof in 1988, announced a companion program, the aging transport non-structural systems plan, to help ensure that aircraft systems, such as those for wiring and fuel, did not fail as they grew older. The program, which grew out of the investigation of the in-flight explosion of Trans World Airlines Flight 800 that killed 230 people in 1996, included stepped-up inspections of wiring, a long-term research program, and a model-by-model assessment of each aircraft type together with other items. (See October 28, 1991; September 28, 1998; December 3, 1998; August 16, 2001.) October 1, 1998: FAA implemented the air transport oversight system (ATOS), an air carrier oversight process that advocated a systems approach to FAA certification and surveillance oversight. The new process would combine system safety techniques with risk management principles to ensure air carriers had built safety considerations into their operating systems. (See May 13, 1998; April 8, 2002.) October 8, 1998: FAA, with assistance from the Helicopter Safety Advisory Conference, implemented the world's first instrument flight rules (IFR) grid system in the Gulf of Mexico. FAA designed this navigational route structure, completely independent of ground-based navigation aids, to facilitate helicopter IFR operations to offshore destinations. The grid system was defined by over 300 offshore waypoints located 20 minutes apart (latitude and longitude). These waypoints had five-letter identifiers systematically based so operators and controllers could visualize the relative location. To simplify flight planning inflight data input and navigation, these waypoints were integrated into the computer database within the GPS receivers. Both flight crews and controllers used the grid system, which assisted them by: allowing for more direct routing; reducing the manual workload that controllers performed to provide separation from other helicopters; and reducing delays. October 9, 1998: FAA Administrator Jane Garvey and NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin signed an agreement establishing a new partnership in pursuit of improved aviation safety, airspace system efficiency, and aircraft environmental concerns. The agreement created an executive board comprised of senior managers from both agencies 22 who would monitor progress and ensure complementary aviation and commercial space transportation goals were achieved through a coordinated planning effort. October 14, 1998: FAA announced within six months it would develop a new test specification for aircraft insulation to increase fire safety. When available for use, the new test standard would be required for use in the manufacture of all applicable aircraft. (See August 11, 1999.) October 15, 1998: A FAA Boeing 727 receiving signals from both U.S. and European satellite navigation networks performed successful flight tests at Iceland's Keflavik Airport. The aircraft performed a series of category I precision approaches to the runway using onboard equipment receiving signals from FAA’s national satellite test bed, a forerunner to WAAS, and the United Kingdom's Northern European Satellite Test Bed. (See October 20-22, 1997; December 9, 1998.) October 28, 1998: FAA recommended that pilots not take impotence drugs within six hours of flying because it could affect their ability to distinguish between the blues and greens found in cockpit instrument and runway lights. October 28, 1998: FAA officials told a public hearing in Rockville, Maryland, a federal plan to consolidate four of their region's air traffic control facilities would lead to an overall reduction in airplane noise, but it also might aggravate the problem for some local communities. Under the plan, FAA would close the terminal radar control (TRACON) facilities at Dulles International, Reagan National, and Baltimore-Washington International airports and Andrews Air Force Base and open a combined center in Loudoun County or Fauquier County. (See January 6, 1997; January 7, 1999.) November 6, 1998: President Clinton dedicated the new Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill, Arkansas. He told the audience his administration was working to make the national aviation system better able to handle the anticipated 50-percent increase in global air travel in the coming seven years. He added FAA and other agencies were working together “… to convert our air traffic control system to satellite technology, to change the way we inspect older aircraft, and most important over the long run, to combat terrorism with new equipment, new agents, and new methods." November 12, 1998: Reacting to concerns raised by the September 2 crash of Swissair Flight 111, FAA ordered airlines to inspect two lighting dimmer switches that could overheat and emit smoke when installed in the cockpits of McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft. McDonnell Douglas had issued a service bulletin three years earlier recommending replacement of the switches. One of the problems reported by the crew of Flight 111 before it crashed was smoke in the cockpit. (See September 2, 1998; December 9, 1998.) November 20, 1998: FAA proposed to require foreign air carriers flying to and from the United States to implement security measures identical to those required of U.S. air carriers serving the same airports. (See September 25, 1998; November 23, 1998.) 23 November 23, 1998: FAA certified the eXaminer 3DX 6000 system manufactured by L-3 Communications as the second explosives detection system to meet the agency's certification requirements. (See November 20, 1998; March 31, 1999.) December 3, 1998: In an emergency airworthiness directive, FAA ordered all Boeing 747 operators to carry more fuel in the center wing tank to ensure the pumps remained immersed in fuel when operating. (See October 1, 1998; March 3, 1999.) December 9, 1998: FAA issued an airworthiness directive ordering inspection and possible replacement of electrical wiring above the forward passenger doors of McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft. The order required a one-time visual inspection within ten days to detect problems such as nicks, fraying, or chafing in the wiring above the left and right forward passenger doors. As part of the inquiry into the Swissair 111 crash off Nova Scotia in September, FAA learned damaged electrical wires were found near the forward passenger doors of an MD-11 during regularly scheduled heavy maintenance. Further examination showed, when the doors were raised to the open position, sliding panels above the doors moved inward and could have chafed the electrical wiring in those areas. The condition, if not fixed, might lead to an electrical fire in the passenger cabin. (See November 12, 1998; January 28, 1999.) December 9, 1998: FAA and Chile's Director General of Civil Aeronautics completed the first test flights in Chile demonstrating the capabilities and benefits of the WAAS installed at Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport. (See October 15, 1998; January 5, 1999.) December 15, 1998: Department of Transportation Secretary Slater announced flights of all U.S. carriers, both domestic and international, must be completely smoke-free. (See May 7, 1996.) December 16, 1998: FAA issued a notice to airmen advising all civil aircraft operators that hostilities had begun in the airspace over Iraq and might also occur in the airspace over nearby nations and waters in the Arabian Peninsula, including the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. FAA advised operators flying in the area should strictly comply with aircraft identification procedures and monitor international emergency frequencies. December 17, 1998: FAA's small airplane directorate issued the first U.S. type certificate for a Russian type design, clearing the way for import into the United States. The type certificate was issued at a ceremony at the Ilyushin plant attended by senior Russian officials and by U.S. Ambassador James Collins. An all-metal, two-seat propeller-driven aircraft powered by a single 210 HP Teledyne Continental Motors IO-360ES engine with a Hartzell propeller, the Ilyushin IL-103 was issued certificate number A45CE. It was certified in the utility category. December 21, 1998: FAA Administrator Jane Garvey announced a new streamlined administrative action process to reduce paperwork and shorten the time it took to resolve certain violations that did not pose a serious threat to aviation safety. At the time, it took 24 an average of 75 days to resolve an administrative violation. Under the new program, FAA hoped to cut that delay to as little as seven days in some cases. Inspectors could use the new process to deal with alleged violations that did not require extensive investigation. (See July 15, 1999.) 1999 January 5, 1999: FAA announced it would revise the implementation schedule for the wide area augmentation system (WAAS) to allow more time to complete development of a critical software safety package that would monitor, correct, and verify the performance of the system. FAA rescheduled the original July 1999 commissioning date for phase 1 of WAAS to September 2000. (See December 9, 1998; January 29, 1999; April 6-9, 1999.) January 7, 1999: FAA announced the selection of Vint Hill Farms Station, a former military intelligence base in Fauquier County, Virginia, as the site for a $93 million consolidated air-traffic control facility. FAA officials said the move would put controllers handling planes approaching, Dulles International, Reagan National, and Baltimore- Washington International airports, and Andrews Air Force Base under one roof to improve air safety and streamline costs. (See October 28, 1998; March 6, 2000.) January 11, 1999: FAA issued final airworthiness directives (AD) calling for operators to limit the payloads of Boeing 727 aircraft. The directives placed restrictions on 727s converted from passenger to all-cargo operations until the floor structures were reinforced or they were re-qualified to carry higher payloads. FAA expressed concern that converted aircraft had design features, including under-strength cargo floors, did not meet FAA certification safety requirements for cargo carriers. The ADs required operators either to reduce payloads to 3,000 pounds per container or to adhere to interim operational limitations that would permit them to carry individual containers of up to 4,800 pounds. Operators had 90 days from the effective date to make the appropriate revisions to the airplane flight manuals, supplements to them, and airplane weight and balance supplements. If individual operators failed to complete modifications within 28 months, their allowed payloads would be permanently reduced to 3,000 per container. January 13, 1999: FAA proposed mandatory tests for potential cracks in valves in some 737 rudder power control units (PCUs). The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) entailed an airworthiness directive that would apply to all Boeing 737-100 through -500 series aircraft. This AD was proposed in response to the PCU supplier’s discovery of cracks in a component of a valve assembly. In addition, cracks had been found by operators before they installed valves in their aircraft. The proposed rule would order operators to perform tests on their PCUs to detect cracks in a joint in the servo valve that regulated the intake of hydraulic fluid to the PCU. Analysis had shown that a single crack in one leg of the component was not in itself an unsafe condition. A crack in both legs, however, could cause the component to break apart and jam the valve assembly. If a crack was found during the test process, the AD required the operator to replace the defective valve with a modified valve. (See March 14, 1997; May 3, 1999.) 25 January 20, 1999: Department of Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater and FAA Administrator Jane Garvey dedicated a new, first-of-its-kind air traffic control system, the display system replacement (DSR), at the air route traffic control center in Auburn, Washington. The DSR replaced equipment that had been in service for 20 to 30 years with upgraded displays, and computer hardware and software. (See March 14, 1997; July 14, 2000.) January 28, 1999: FAA ordered inspections of wiring and insulation in the cockpit and cabin on the entire U.S. commercial fleet of McDonnell Douglas MD-11s. The AD had been under development prior to the January 11 recommendation of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on MD-11 wiring. It followed discussions with the Canadian Transportation Safety Board and NTSB, which resulted in a December 22, 1998, Canadian Transportation Safety Board safety advisory letter suggesting a closer look at the wiring in the MD-11 fleet. Several MD-11s were examined as part of the Swissair accident investigation. Based on the wiring discrepancies found, the directive required U.S. operators to perform the inspections, and make any necessary repairs, within 60 days and report findings to FAA. (See December 9, 1998; April 20, 1999.) January 29, 1999: FAA announced findings that, with some anticipated improvements, an augmented global positioning system (GPS) could serve safely and reliably as the only navigation system installed in aircraft and the only navigation system provided by FAA. The findings were taken from an independent assessment of GPS capabilities conducted by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory for FAA, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, and the Air Transport Association. Features of WAAS and the local area augmentation system (LAAS), both under development, were expected to provide improved accuracy, integrity, and availability of GPS signals. (See June 3, 1998; January 5, 1999; April 2, 1999; April 6-9, 1999.) February 3, 1999: Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater announced the Clinton Administration would propose legislation to promote competition at large airline hubs dominated by one airline. The draft legislation would state that before they could raise passenger fees, the operators of such facilities would be required to explain how they intended to promote competition. The bill would also include a proposal to charge fees for use of the air traffic systems and would require a "performance based-organization" to be created to provide for air traffic control within FAA. Aspects of these proposals proved controversial and ran into stiff opposition in Congress and in portions of the aviation community. (See April 5, 2000.) February 9, 1999: Working in partnership with the aviation industry, FAA announced it had reached an agreement with pilots and airlines regarding procedures affecting the conduct of land and hold short operations (LAHSO). The agreement dealt with runway surface and weather minima, training, visual aids, landing distance, and rejected landings. Highlights included:  Air carriers would conduct LAHSO only on dry runways until such time as the manufacturers had provided actual demonstrated landing distance figures on wet runways for the aircraft in question. 26  FAA would issue a flight standards handbook bulletin specifying before an air carrier could conduct LAHSO, it must provide a pilot training program for the LAHSO procedure.  Use of LAHSO would not be authorized on a runway lacking electronic or visual vertical guidance (i.e., an improved LAHSO lighting configuration).  For each type of aircraft with LAHSO, the runway landing length would be the greater of the simultaneous operations on intersecting runway category length or FAA-approved aircraft flight manual distance plus 1000 feet. To ensure that the appropriate level of safety was maintained, only LAHSO configurations which did not require a rejected landing instruction, or for which a rejected landing instruction was published, were to be used by air carrier aircraft. (See July 14, 2000.) March 3, 1999: In an airworthiness directive effective March 18, FAA ordered operators of certain Boeing 737-100, -200, -300, -400 and -500 aircraft to inspect and correct any chafing of float switch wiring found in the center fuel tank. The float switch, powered by direct current, automatically closed the fueling valve to prevent the fuel tank from being overfilled. Chafed wiring associated with this device, however, could provide an ignition source inside the tank. The agency required each aircraft’s float switch be removed or deactivated and inspected for evidence of chafing – such as electrical arcing or worn insulation – either within 30 days of the AD’s effective date, or before the aircraft could accumulate 30,000 total flight hours. Under the terms of the AD, operators could install protective Teflon sleeving and wiring, allowing reuse of the float switch, or they could install a new float switch with the necessary Teflon sleeved wiring. Alternatively, operators might deactivate the float switch and paint a "caution" sign adjacent to the aircraft-fueling panel to indicate a mandatory reduction of the maximum fuel capacity with associated modified fueling procedures to minimize the possibility of fuel spills. (See December 3, 1998, October 28, 1999.) March 8, 1999: FAA released the National Airspace System (NAS) Plan, version 4.0. The update extended the agency's modernization strategy through 2015. March 11, 1999: Department of Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater and FAA Administrator Jane Garvey dedicated the newest FAA air traffic control computer system in a ceremony at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC). They dedicated the host and oceanic computer system replacement (HOCSR), a key component of the national airspace system (NAS) infrastructure modernization program and FAA's Year 2000 (Y2K) compliance effort. The new system was more than four times faster and orders of magnitude more reliable than its predecessor – while occupying only an eighth of the floor space of the system it replaced. The New York ARTCC’s HOCSR, the first in the nation, went online February 24. (See September 30, 1999). March 15, 1999: FAA announced it had issued a launch license to a Boeing-led international consortium to conduct a first-of-its-kind demonstration space launch, targeted for March 2, from a sea-going platform in the mid-Pacific. The 40 percent 27 Boeing-owned partnership would use a Ukrainian-built Zenit booster rocket and a Russian-built upper stage in the demonstration. The launch platform, a converted self- propelled oil drilling platform, would be accompanied to the launch site by an assembly and command ship designed and built by Kvaerner Maritime of Norway, another partner in the undertaking. (See September 24, 1998; April 21, 1999.) March 31, 1999: FAA announced plans to purchase more than 150 additional security devices for the nation's airports, continuing to implement a recommendation by the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security. The purchase of 21 FAA-certified explosives detection systems and 135 trace explosives detection devices added to the multi-year deployment of airport security equipment. FAA purchases to date included 95 FAA-certified explosives detection systems, 20 automated dual-energy X-ray machines, two quadrapole resonance devices, and 462 trace explosives detection devices. The trace explosives detectors were being deployed primarily at airport security checkpoints for screening carry-on bags. The other machines were bulk explosives detectors used to examine checked baggage. (See November 23, 1998; April 15, 1999.) April 1, 1999: President Clinton signed Public Law 106-6, Interim Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act. April 2, 1999: FAA announced an agreement to join with Raytheon Systems and Honeywell Inc. in the development of the LAAS. Raytheon and Honeywell would provide funding for the development, and FAA would provide the LAAS specifications and expertise on development and certification. (See January 29, 1999; August 13, 1999.) April 6-9, 1999: Raytheon completed the first of three major system integration milestones for WAAS. Called stability build, the test showed the ability of WAAS to provide augmentation to the U.S. GPS system. During the test, the system operated continuously for 72 hours using WAAS ground and space components. In monitoring the test, Raytheon and FAA examined data from several locations, including Denver, Oklahoma City, and Dayton. The next system integration milestone, the full functionality build, would be followed by the performance build, the final software build designed to show the system was ready to enter formal system testing. (See January 5, 1999; August 24, 2000.) April 12, 1999: FAA commissioned the National Airport Pavement Test Facility. (See April 1, 1997.) April 15, 1999: FAA proposed a rule to strengthen security of checked baggage in the domestic aviation system. The proposal would require airlines to apply additional security to the checked baggage of some passengers. The rule directed the use of automated screening procedures, but provided options for airlines that chose to apply additional security to all passengers. The computer assisted passenger screening program (CAPS) would replace manual programs. CAPS used data from existing airline reservation systems to select baggage randomly or through preprogrammed criteria. The 28 proposed rule would require CAPS for scheduled operations on any aircraft with 61 seats or more. (See March 31, 1999; November 2, 1999.) April 20, 1999: FAA ordered operators of 45 McDonnell Douglas MD-11s registered in the U.S. to verify the installation of a wire harness support bracket and clamp in the lower center cargo compartment. A missing bracket and clamp might cause a wire bundle to contact the insulation blanket and rub against the fuselage frame, producing a possible fire source. The emergency airworthiness directive affected MD-11s equipped with a 72- inch cargo door. Operators of the affected aircraft were required to perform inspections, verify the installation of the bracket and clamp, and repair any damaged wires within five days. All findings had to be reported to FAA within ten days after completion of the inspections. (See January 28, 1999; September 29, 1999.) April 21, 1999: Following industry review of applicable safety guidelines, FAA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for reusable launch vehicle and reentry licensing regulation and continued to work with industry to develop a regulatory program to address public safety issues. (See March 15, 1999; June 21, 1999.) April 26, 1999: FAA ordered operators to inspect for and correct possible fatigue cracks in the aft pressure bulkheads located near the tails of certain Boeing 737 aircraft. Stemming from reports of fatigue cracks on the components in some Boeing 737-200 models, the airworthiness directive applied to Boeing 737-100 through -500 aircraft. In some cases, to comply with the AD, operators had to perform a low-frequency eddy current inspection from the rear of the pressure bulkhead. In other instances, visual inspections from the front of the bulkhead were deemed sufficient. April 26, 1999: FAA, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), and Professional Airways Systems Specialists (PASS) jointly announced a revised implementation plan for the standard terminal automation replacement system (STARS). The plan focused on developing the full STARS as soon as possible while simultaneously meeting short-term requirements for controller displays at a small number of FAA facilities. Under the revised plan, the first STARS would go into the terminal radar control (TRACON) facilities in Syracuse, New York, and El Paso, Texas. Initially, the sites would receive the early display configuration of STARS. In parallel, development would continue on the full STARS, which would include a new computer system. Once STARS had the capability to handle the needs of higher-level facilities, it would be deployed throughout the country. (See October 30, 1997; August 3, 1999.) May 3, 1999: FAA, responding to pressure from federal safety officials, announced it would require a major upgrade of aircraft flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders to provide better information after accidents. In particular, FAA would require new on-board sensors to determine movements of the Boeing 737 rudder, which had been listed as the probable cause of two crashes. Administrator Jane Garvey revealed these plans during a panel discussion at a NTSB symposium on flight recorders in which NTSB Chairman Jim Hall criticized FAA for not responding quickly enough to his agency’s 29 recommendations. (See August 18, 1997; January 13, 1999; January 8, 2000; September 14, 2000.) May 6, 1999: FAA announced it had reached an agreement with NATCA to tighten the rules for its liaison and familiarization training program. This program authorized agency employees to sit in the cockpit during commercial flights, listen to air traffic control communications, and observe pilot procedures. The program was intended to promote better understanding of the pressures facing flight crews. May 8, 1999: The engineered materials arresting system installed at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport successfully stopped a Saab 340 commuter aircraft that overran the runway. (See August 21, 1998; May 30, 2003.) May 22, 1999: FAA ordered inspections on more than 1,000 Boeing 727 jetliners registered in the United States. A FAA spokesman said the emergency airworthiness directive was sent after mechanics found severe wear on wires and holes in the tubing on two 727 cargo jets. Signs of electric sparking around the wires also were discovered. "This condition, if not corrected, could result in ignition of fuel vapors in a fuel tank, and a fuel tank explosion," read the FAA's telegram to 727 operators. May 24, FAA ordered operators of Boeing 727 aircraft to inspect, and if necessary, replace electrical wires running through fuel tanks. The agency previously announced it would follow its May 22 order for Boeing 727 fuel tank leak checks with a more comprehensive order for wiring inspections. The airworthiness directive required that operators remove and inspect wire bundles carried in conduits (tubes) through 727 fuel tanks. If chafing were found, the wires had to be replaced. The AD also required all the wires be wrapped with an additional protective layer of Teflon. This had to be done immediately if the Teflon wrapping was available, otherwise at the next scheduled maintenance check. (See August 16, 2001.) May 24, 1999: FAA released to industry a new computer tool designed to reduce the disk failure rate in turbine-powered jet engines. The computer tool complemented the actions announced earlier by FAA Administrator Jane Garvey that required enhanced inspections of engine fan disks to detect cracks that were potential precursors to uncontained disk failures. The disk design and life management tool, called design assessment of reliability with inspection, allowed engine manufacturers to improve disk structural integrity. Engine manufacturers could run the code, along with their other design systems, on a computer workstation, to comply with a planned advisory circular on disk life management. May 28, 1999: FAA and PASS, a labor union representing approximately 7,600 employees, announced an agreement to resume contract negotiations with the help of a mediator. (See January 11, 2000.) June 3, 1999: A twin-engine McDonnell Douglas MD-80 carrying 139 passengers and six crew members, crashed at Little Rock National Airport as violent thunderstorms and winds swept through the region. Survivors said the plane swerved out of control almost 30 immediately after making contact with the runway, slid off the end of the 7,200-foot runway at a high speed, and crashed into a steel tower. (See October 23, 2001.) June 14, 1999: The media reported some FAA lawyers planned to join a union. When Congress released FAA from many civil service rules, it had said that unionized workers could bargain with management over salaries. It also gave FAA the option of lowering salaries of unorganized workers via a core compensation plan. Air traffic controllers, who already were unionized, were the first FAA employees to bargain for salaries. June 16, 1999: FAA proposed to revise and strengthen federal rules for maintenance performed at domestic and foreign repair stations. The proposed regulation would ensure certified repair stations were held responsible for all maintenance work that was outsourced to contractors. (See March 28, 2005.) June 21, 1999: Effective this date, FAA amended its commercial space transportation licensing regulations. The changes provided applicants and licensees’ greater specificity and clarity regarding the scope of a license, and codified and amended licensing requirements and criteria. (See April 21, 1999; November 9, 1999.) July 10, 1999: FAA and an industry group conducted the first large-scale test of automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B), a technology designed to enhance safety by giving pilots and air traffic controllers more information about aircraft locations. Done in partnership with the Cargo Airline Association, the Wilmington, Ohio, tests evaluated how well ADS-B could help pilots be more aware of aircraft in their vicinity. Using an aircraft's GPS sensor, ADS-B equipment sent very accurate position information, along with speed and identification data, to other similarly equipped planes and ADS-B ground receiving stations. During the test, participating flight crews monitored aircraft in their area using a special cockpit display. Air traffic control facilities received combined radar and ADS-B target information for evaluation. Ground receiving stations in Wilmington and Louisville, Kentucky, provided coverage throughout the 500-square-mile test area. Approximately 25 planes participated. This ADS-B operational evaluation was the first in a series of tests planned for the next three years under FAA's Safe Flight-21 program. (See October 26-28, 2000.) July 13, 1999: Former FAA Administrator Donald Engen died in the crash of a glider fitted with a small motor. A distinguished U.S. Navy and test pilot who retired as a vice admiral, Engen was 75. July 15, 1999: FAA announced a new streamlined administrative action process to deal with violations that did not warrant serious legal enforcement action or pose a serious threat to aviation safety. This new way to resolve minor violations officially commenced on August 30. Using the new process, an inspector would discuss the problem with the alleged violator, fill out a data entry form with all pertinent information, return to the office to check the person's history, enter the information into a database, and mail an automated warning notice to the individual. The violator would have an opportunity to provide additional information for FAA's consideration. Previously, all administrative 31 actions involved a burdensome process that often entailed multiple letters of investigation and extensive files. (See December 21, 1998.) July 16, 1999: John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, were killed when their small aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. Kennedy, a relatively inexperienced pilot, was flying a Piper Saratoga, a moderately complex plane he bought the previous April. He took off without incident just after 8:30 p.m. from Essex County Airport in Fairfield, New Jersey. July 6, 2000, NTSB released its final report on the crash and stated the probable cause of the accident was "the pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane during a descent over water at night, which was a result of spatial disorientation. Factors in the accident were haze and the dark night." August 3, 1999: The early display capability, or EDC, version of STARS entered its operational test and evaluation. The tests were scheduled to run through October 4. If STARS passed the series of tests, it would enter an initial operational capability phase at El Paso, Texas, in December 1999 and at Syracuse, New York, in January 2000. (See April 26, 1999; December 20, 1999.) August 4, 1999: Due to provisions in legislation passed the previous year by Congress, Monte Belger returned to his position as FAA associate administrator for air traffic services. The legislation, called the Vacancies Reform Act, was designed to limit the amount of time an executive in any federal agency could act in a position requiring presidential appointment and confirmation by the Senate. The FAA administrator had no plans to name another executive as acting deputy pending nomination by the White House of a candidate for the position. Monte Belger, however, still continued to perform significant management functions, because, under agency procedures, in the absence of a confirmed candidate, the associate administrator for air traffic services assumed the deputy administrator’s duties. The air traffic services organization continued to be managed by Steve Brown, as deputy associate administrator. (See February 1, 1997; November 8, 1999.) August 5, 1999: An agreement by major U.S. airlines to assess the safety of their foreign partners represented a major step in a long-term trend toward exporting U.S. aviation safety standards around the globe. The assessments took place as part of a growing worldwide arrangement among airlines called "code sharing," in which U.S. airlines shared flight numbers with foreign airlines. (See December 5-7, 1999.) August 11, 1999: FAA Administrator Jane Garvey ordered operators of 699 aircraft to replace insulation blankets covered with metalized Mylar within four years. FAA strongly encouraged operators to accomplish the insulation replacement during the earliest practical maintenance check. The announcement followed eight months of extensive testing in support of the development of a new test standard for aircraft insulation. (See October 14, 1998; May 25, 2000.) August 12, 1999: FAA agreed to take a series of steps to reduce air traffic control delays. In particular, FAA planned to strengthen the decision-making authority of its command 32 center, allowing the Herndon, Virginia, facility to assert more authority over large portions of the air traffic control center network. August 13, 1999: FAA, UPS, and the Air Transport Association conducted flight tests of FAA’s prototype LAAS at the William J. Hughes Technical Center. Researchers studied the benefits of integrating a pseudolite into the existing LAAS prototype. A pseudolite was a ground component, installed at an airport that appears to an aircraft's navigation system to be the equivalent of a GPS satellite. (See April 2, 1999; May 1, 2003.) September 29, 1999: FAA banned installation of in-flight entertainment systems on all McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft registered in the U.S. An agency review concluded incompatibilities between the electrical power switching technologies of the entertainment systems and the design concept of the MD-11 airplane limited a flight crew's ability to respond to a smoke or fumes emergency. (See April 20, 1999.) September 30, 1999: With the installation at the Honolulu ARTCC, FAA completed installation of the host and oceanic computer system replacement (HOCSR) systems at all 23 of its air traffic and oceanic centers. The availability of HOCSR completed the network providing the main computer and processor that produced and processed information on aircraft movements throughout domestic and oceanic airspace. The improved technology was more than four times faster and more reliable than its predecessor, while occupying only an eighth of the floor space of the systems it replaced. (See March 11, 1999.) September 30, 1999: FAA announced it had chosen Lockheed Martin Air Traffic Management to continue development and deployment of the user request evaluation tool (URET). Also called a conflict probe, the URET software gave controllers a strategic 20- minute look ahead to detect potential conflicts when considering pilots' requests for altitude and route changes. The system would be deployed and available to controllers in late 2001 through 2002. (See April 16, 1998; December 2001.) October 6, 1999: FAA selected the Societe Internationale Telecommunications Aeronautiques to provide standing data link communications services (the future air navigation system, or FANS) to the Oakland, New York, and Alaska ARTCCs. Previously, FAA paid for data link communications services on a per message basis. October 9, 1999: President Clinton signed the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2000. At the signing, however, he noted concerns “about the funding level provided in the bill for FAA operations and capital programs.” For example, he said the bill provided “$144 million less than my request for FAA operations. This reduction will slow hiring for safety and security positions and postpone implementation of needed efficiency and management improvements. The bill also constrains funding for the modernization of the air traffic control system, including needed modernization and improvement of the Global Positioning System. These reductions may increase air travel delays and ill-position the FAA to meet the growing challenges of the future." 33 October 26, 1999: A Learjet, without a pilot in control, flew for almost four hours from Orlando, Florida, to a swampy grassland area in South Dakota. The Learjet was shadowed by United States Air Force (USAF) and Air National Guard jet fighters, whose pilots reported the aircraft's windows were frosted over, suggesting that it had lost pressurization. USAF pilots also reported the Learjet meandered from as low as 22,000 feet to as high as 51,000 feet, but never strayed from a northwest heading. Pentagon officials said the military began its pursuit of the aircraft at 10:08 a.m., when two Air Force F-16 fighters from Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida on a routine training mission were asked by FAA to intercept it. The F-16s did not reach the Learjet, but an USAF F- 15 fighter from Eglin Air Force Base in Florida got within sight of the aircraft and stayed with it from 11:09 a.m. to 11:44 a.m., when the military fighter was diverted to St. Louis for fuel. Fifteen minutes later, four Air National Guard F-16s and a KC-135 tanker from Tulsa were ordered to try to catch up with the Learjet, but got only within 100 miles. Two other Air National Guard F-16s from Fargo, North Dakota, intercepted the Learjet at 12:54 p.m., reporting the aircraft's windows were fogged with ice and no flight control movement could be seen. At 1:14 p.m., the F-16s reported the Learjet was beginning to spiral toward the ground. Professional golfer Payne Stewart was killed in the crash. October 28, 1999: Building on information gathered since the in-flight explosion of TWA Flight 800 three years earlier, FAA proposed a mandatory design review of fuel tanks on more than 90 percent of the U.S. commercial aircraft fleet. One of the largest such orders ever contemplated, the proposal covered a total of about 6,000 aircraft – applying to all commercial aircraft, whether driven by jet power or propellers, that car