This Day in FAA History: August 27th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19780827: FAA issued a type certificate under FAR Part 23 for the twin-turboprop Bandeirante aircraft manufactured by Embraer of Brazil, thus clearing the way for export to the United States. The Bandeirante was one of several foreign airplane types expected to see service on expanding U.S. commuter airline routes. The airplane could carry up to 19 passengers, and was the only non-pressurized, non-STOL airliner of its size still in production.
19980827: The National Transportation Safety Board 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 that 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.)
20020827: FAA issued a final rule confirming interim final rules published on September 29, 1992, and December 30, 1993, requiring deicing operations in ground icing conditions. The interim final rules required Part 121 certificate holders to develop and comply with a FAA approved ground deicing/anti-icing program, part 125 certificate holders to provide pilot testing on conducting operations in ground icing conditions, part 135 certificate holders to provide pilot training on conducting operations in ground icing conditions, and part 125 and 135 certificate holders to check airplanes for contamination (i.e., frost, ice, or snow) prior to takeoff when ground icing conditions exist.
20060827: Comair Flight 5191 crashed at the Lexington Blue Grass Airport; 48 of the 49 people on board died in the crash. In pre-dawn darkness, the crew had turned the aircraft onto a 3,500-ft. inoperative VFR-day Runway 26 instead of the 7,000-ft. departure Runway 22, a 40-degree heading difference. The aircraft had run out of concrete during the takeoff roll and crashed into a perimeter fence.
20120827: FAA announced plans to establish a government-industry group to study the portable electronic devices (PED) policies and procedures aircraft operators used to determine when such devices could be used safely during flight. FAA’s mandate to the study group excluded in-flight use of cell phones. Then current FAA regulations required an aircraft operator to determine the radio frequency interference from the devices were not a safety risk before authorizing them for use during certain phases of flight. As the first step in gathering information for the working group, FAA sought public input on the agency’s PED policies, guidance, and procedures for operators. The request for comments appeared in the Federal Register on August 28. (See September 30, 2013.)
20120827: FAA announced the selection of Harris Corp. to develop the national airspace system (NAS) voice system (NVS) as a replacement for the 40-year-old legacy system. NVS would support ground-to-ground voice communications between air traffic controllers and air-to-ground voice communications between controllers and aircraft. FAA planned to deploy NVS in air traffic control towers, terminal, and en route facilities, and future NextGen facilities. The NVS contract had a five-year base and five two-year options, with a potential total value of $291.6 million. (See March 6, 2012; September 28, 2012.)
20150827: In a response to a petition by airlines, FAA issued a decision saying it would consider extending the deadline for replacing older GPS receivers with newer technology to 2025, but no later. Extensions would be based on individual airline requests. The exemptions would not affect the deadline to implement ADS-B Out by 2020. (April 14, 2014; October 30, 2015.)
20190827: FAA began requiring all pilots filing flight plans to use the ICAO flight plan format. According to FAA, using the ICAO form allowed for a greater variety of entry types in departure and destination fields including special flight rules area flight plans, transmission of the supplemental pilot data field to the destination facility with the VFR flight plan to reduce search and rescue response times, integration of performance based navigation, and use of more detailed equipment codes to identify better aircraft capabilities.
20210827: FAA released a final environmental assessment that found “no significant impact” for Virgin Orbit to conduct launches using its Boeing 747-400 carrier aircraft and LauncherOne rocket from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. According to FAA’s report, Virgin Orbit proposed to conduct a maximum of 25 launches over the next five years to place small satellites into a variety of low Earth orbits. The company also had to meet FAA safety, risk, and financial responsibility requirements.