This Day in FAA History: September 14th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19420914: To meet the increased tempo of military requirements, CAA established a Pacific Islands Office at Honolulu under the general supervision of the Sixth Region, headquartered at Los Angeles.
19630914: The Convention on Offenses and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft (known as the Tokyo Convention) was opened for signature at a diplomatic conference held under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). An FAA official representing President Kennedy signed the document on behalf of the United States. The Legal Committee of ICAO had spent many years drafting the convention, which clarified certain jurisdictional issues concerning hijacked aircraft, and recognized the authority of aircraft commanders to use reasonable force to preserve law and order aboard their aircraft. The agreement also obligated signatory nations in which a hijacked aircraft might land to restore that aircraft to its lawful commander and to permit passengers and crew to continue their journey as soon as possible. The convention was to become effective 90 days after the twelfth signatory state deposited its instrument of ratification. (See December 4, 1969.)
19710914: FAA signed an agreement with NASA for joint participation in flight simulation research and development projects. Under the agreement, FAA provided technical personnel to coordinate the agency’s R & D projects with NASA officials at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffet Field, Calif. Included among the research projects were aircraft handling qualities and the development of certification criteria for new aircraft, such as short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft.
19710914: FAA transferred the air marking and skyway programs to the Office of General Aviation from the Facility Installation Service.
20000914: Following a year-long analysis, FAA announced a range of initiatives affecting the Boeing 737 rudder system. Near-term initiatives involved changes in operations and maintenance; however, long-term, FAA planned to initiate rulemaking to mandate the redesign of the entire system. (See May 3, 1999; October 26, 2000.)
20010914: Department of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta approved restoration of the next phase of national air service, allowing certain general aviation flights back into the air effective at 4:00 p.m. General aviation was allowed to resume flights operating under Instrument Flight Rules, or IFR. Temporarily, however, general aviation flights would not be allowed to fly within 25 nautical miles of New York City and Washington, DC. Those restrictions would be kept in place until further notice as officials continued to assess the recovery situation in those cities over the near term. September 19, FAA lifted most restrictions of general aviation (Part 91) visual flight rules operations, or VFR, flights. VFR flights were now permitted for U.S. registered aircraft outside of enhanced Class B airspace, or airspace within a 30-mile radius of 30 major U.S. airports. FAA kept restrictions on the following flying activities (except in Hawaii): civil aircraft VFR flight training operations; VFR operations for banner towing; news reporting; traffic watch; airship/blimps; and Part 91 sightseeing. AA also restricted flying of any kind within 3000 feet altitude and three nautical miles of major sporting events or large open-air gatherings of people, such as football and baseball stadiums, race tracks, and concerts. (See September 12, 2001; September 23, 2001.)
20100914: FAA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would set a nine-hour minimum for rest prior to a pilot’s duty period, a one-hour increase over the current rules. The proposed rule would establish a new method for measuring a pilot’s rest period, so that the pilot would have the chance to receive at least eight hours of sleep during the rest period. Cumulative fatigue would be addressed by placing weekly, 28- day, and annual limits on the amount of time a pilot could be assigned any type of duty. Pilots would have to be given at least 30 consecutive hours free from duty on a weekly basis, a 25 percent increase over the then current rules. (See August 1, 2010.)
20150914: In line with the Agency’s new compliance philosophy, FAA issued guidance to offices that handled pilot certificate action, offering an alternative tool for handling FAA violations through remedial training. FAA said it put the new guidance in place in an effort to make the national airspace system safer by correcting deviances through training rather than litigation. The FAA safety team (FAASTeam) would facilitate the remedial training. FAA published the information in a notice directed to affected FAA offices and added into the compliance and enforcement section of FAA’s compliance and enforcement program as well as Order 8900.1. The remedial training guidance served as an alternative to administrative or legal enforcement action when appropriate. In addition, because runway incursions were a particularly common violation, the document offered specific guidance for runway incursion remedial training. It also included a specific section in Order 8900.1 dedicated to runway incursions. FAA developed a standardized ground-training curriculum called the runway incursion remedial training program (RIRTP). The RIRTP program would be applied to first-time runway incursions. Repeat offenders who had already completed the RIRTP could be offered the program again or could face litigation. (See June 26, 2015.)
20150914: Airbus, based in Toulouse, France, opened its first jetliner factory in the United States, in Mobile, AL. Airbus hoped the new plant could produce 50 narrow body jets a month by 2017.
20220914: Nextgov.com highlighted FAA’s new interactive online dashboard designed to make the agency’s data more accessible and understandable to the general public. The interactive Fact Book includes, in part, data and figures on air traffic, safety, airspace modernization and unmanned aircraft systems.
20230914: FAA returned Mexico’s aviation safety rating to Category 1 following more than two years of close work between the civil aviation authorities in both countries. The agency provided expertise and resources via technical assistance agreements to Mexico’s Agencia Federal de Aviación Civil to resolve the safety issues that led to the downgrade. With a return to Category 1 status, Mexico could add new services and routes to the U.S. U.S. airlines could resume marketing and selling tickets with their names and designator codes on Mexican-operated flights. (See January 20, 2023; July 13, 2023.)