This Day in FAA History: August 8th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19460808: An amendment to the Civil Aeronautics Act facilitated the participation of the Weather Bureau in international meteorology and gave the Bureau the responsibility of acting as a clearinghouse for research in aeronautical meteorology. The Bureau was also charged with providing for the collection and dissemination of weather observations made by pilots in flight. (See September 15, 1950.)
19500808: To help CAA personnel keep pace with swift advances in aeronautical science, Congress enacted legislation allowing the Secretary of Commerce to detail agency personnel for advanced training at civilian or other institutions or at schools which the Secretary operated.
19500808: Following field tests, CAA consolidated airport traffic control towers and airway communications stations at 16 smaller airports in the continental United States. The agency subsequently expanded the program, reaching a peak of 84 combined station-towers in 1958. (See November 30, 1981.)
19680808: Congress exempted FAA air traffic control personnel from those provisions of Public Law 90-364 limiting the number of full-time civilian employees in the executive branch to the total employed on June 30, 1966. Controller shortages at the large air hubs and the busier centers, coupled with a more rapid than expected increase in air traffic necessitated the need for additional controllers.
19690808: Secretary of Transportation John A. Volpe established an Air Traffic Controller Career Committee, a seven-member group headed by professional consultant John J. Corson. The committee was to inquire into the controller career field and report its findings and recommendations to the Secretary. Topics to be investigated inluded employment practices, employee compensation, work environment, training, and employee-management relations. The committee was instructed to give special attention to the controller’s occupational stresses. (See January 29, 1970.)
19880808: FAA began System Safety and Efficiency Reviews (SSERs), programs in which interdisciplinary teams from the agency, other public officials, and industry conducted thorough evaluations of all activities that affected aviation safety in and near a facility. The investigations included air traffic control towers and centers, flight service stations, airway facilities, aviation security, and inspector functions. The first SSER began at Chicago O’Hare airport.
19910808: DOT ended all aviation sanctions against South Africa and said that it would consider applications for air carrier routes between the two countries. The action followed a DOT show cause order issued on July 11, the day after President Bush declared South Africa had met conditions set by the antiapartheid law under which the sanctions were imposed (see November 16, 1986).
19920808: Typhoon OMarch struck Guam with winds of up to 150 miles an hour, causing major damage to an estimated 75 to 90 percent of all buildings. The island lost all power. By August 30 the airport had reopened, but only for VFR/daylight operations. No FAA families were injured, although the housing area was severely damaged.
20070808: FAA announced an airport surface detection equipment program known as ASDE-X had begun an operational suitability demonstration at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. ASDE-X used ground surveillance data collected from a variety of sources, including traditional radar, the Automatic Dependent Surveillance — Broadcast system, and aircraft transponders. Controllers in the tower saw the information presented as a color display of aircraft and vehicle positions overlaid on a map of the airport’s runways, taxiways, and approach corridors. The system continuously updated a map of all airport-surface operations that controllers could use to spot potential collisions. The FAA planned to commission the system in about a month. ASDE-X was first tested by the FAA in June 2003 at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The system was declared ready for national deployment several months later. (See February 29, 2004; December 5, 2007.)
20090808: Nine people died when a sightseeing helicopter collided with a small plane near New York City. The single-engine Piper had taken off from Teterboro Airport in NJ, and the helicopter, operated by Liberty Helicopter, had taken off from West 30th Street in Manhattan. Wreckage from both aircraft landed in the Hudson River. (See August 14, 2009.)
20140808: FAA issued a new notice to airmen restricting U.S. operators from flying in the airspace above Iraq because of the hazardous situation created by an armed conflict. The new NOTAM superseded previous FAA guidance for this airspace.
20190808: The Department of Transportation issued guidance designed to clarify rules already in place regarding service animals. The Department limited the number of service animals on a flight, and airlines could deny boarding to an animal too large or heavy or younger than four months. (See October 5, 2019; December 2, 2020.)