Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19571029: The President approved actions of the Airways Modernization Board, taken in accordance with provisions of its basic statute, which transferred to the AMB certain funds and all functions of the Air Navigation Development Board along with several research and development programs of the Departments of Defense and Commerce relating to air traffic control. Subsequent presidentially approved orders transferring additional funds and ATC projects from the DOD. (See May 23, 1948, January 1954, and August 14, 1957.)
19601029: A chartered Curtiss-Wright Super C-46F crashed at Toledo, Ohio, killing 22 of the 48 persons aboard, including 18 members of the California State Polytechnic College football team. CAB cited the probable cause as loss of control during premature liftoff, with contributary factors that included zero-visibility fog. The pilot’s license had been revoked by FAA for a series of previous violations, but he had continued flying pending an appeal before CAB. The operator, Artic-Pacific, lost its certificate as a result of the crash. After the accident, FAA instructed its tower controllers to withold takeoff clearance from commercial aircraft under specified conditions of low visibility.
19721029: Four fugitives killed a ticket agent and hijacked an Eastern Air Lines Boeing 727 at Houston, Tex., and forced it to fly to Cuba. This was followed by an even more sensational incident on November 10-12 when three wanted criminals hijacked a Southern Airways DC-9 at Birmingham, Ala. During the following 29 hours, they flew to: Jackson, Miss.; Cleveland, Ohio; Toronto, Ont.; Lexington, Ky.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Havana, Cuba; Key West, Fla.; and Orlando, Fla. In a desperate attempt to keep the DC-9 on the ground at Orlando, FBI agents shot out its tires. The hijackers responded by seriously wounding the copilot and ordering a takeoff. The pilot succeeded in clearing the runway and making a second and final landing in Havana. The four hijackers were initially imprisoned in Cuba, but were released. U.S. officials subsequently arrested all four, the last being sentenced in 1994. This incident contributed directly to issuance of an anti-hijacking rule (see December 5, 1972), and to negotiation of a hijacking agreement between the Nixon Administration and Cuba (see February 15, 1973).
19781029: Pan American World Airways discontinued most of its European services, withdrawing from Amsterdam, Ankara, Lisbon, Paris, Moscow, Vienna, and all of Eastern Europe except Warsaw. Denouncing the new “open skies” policy (see March 10, 1978) as a “giveaway,” the airline shifted its attention to finding a domestic merger partner.
19821029: Changes in the FAA headquarters organization became officially effective. The position of Associate Administrator for Air Traffic and Airway Facilities was abolished, and the Air Traffic Service now reported directly to the FAA Administrator. (The title of this service’s Director was later changed to Associate Administrator for Air Traffic, effective December 25, 1983.) The Airway Facilities Service was abolished, as were the Associate Administrator for Engineering and Development position and its subordinate services, the Systems Research and Development Service and Office of Systems Engineering Management. The abolished elements were replaced by an organization under a new Associate Administrator for Development and Logistics. Reporting to this Associate Administrator were a new Systems Engineering Service, headed by the former director of the abolished Airway Facilities Service, and a new Program Engineering and Maintenance Service. The Logistics Service was retitled the Acquisition and Materiel Service and remained under the Associate Administrator for Administration.
19971029: 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 that the families of the victims of aviation disasters receive prompt and compassionate assistance.
20151029: FAA Administrator Michael Huerta announced the membership of the UAS registration task force. Task force members included
* Nancy Egan – 3D Robotics
* Richard Hanson – Academy of Model Aeronautics
* George Novak – Aerospace Industries Association
* Chuck Hogeman and Randy Kenagy – Air Line Pilots Association
* Jim Coon – Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association
* Sean Cassidy – Amazon Prime Air
* Ben Gielow–Amazon Retail
* Justin Towles – American Association of Airport Executives
* Brian Wynne – Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International
* Parker Brugge – Best Buy
* Douglas Johnson – Consumer Electronics Association
* Brendan Schulman – DJI
* Paul Feldman – General Aviation Manufacturers Association
* Dave Vos – GoogleX (Co-Chair)
* Tony Bates – GoPro
* Matt Zuccaro – Helicopter Association International
* Mike Fergus – International Association of Chiefs of Police
* John Perry – Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors
* Brandon Declet – Measure
* Randall Burdett – National Association of State Aviation Officials
* Sarah Wolf – National Business Aviation Association
* Baptiste Tripard – Parrot
* Tyler Collins – PrecisionHawk
* Gregory McNeal – Small UAV Coalition
* Thomas Head – Walmart
* Earl Lawrence – FAA (Co-Chair)
The task force held its first meeting on November 3, 2015. (See October 14, 2015; November 23, 2015.)
20181029: Indonesian Lion Air Flight JT610, a Boeing 737 Max 8 jet, crashed shortly after takeoff. None of the 189 people onboard survived the crash. After recovering the plane’s flight data recorder, the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee indicated the Lion Air jet experienced erroneous input from one of its angle of attack sensors. On November 7, Boeing issued a bulletin to airlines worldwide warning of erroneous readings from flight-control software on the Max 8. FAA also issued an emergency notice to all operators of Max 8 and 9 planes. The agency warned airlines that erroneous sensor inputs like the one that came into play in the October 29 crash “could cause the flight crew to have difficulty controlling the airplane,” leading to “possible impact with terrain.” (See February 16, 2018; March 10, 2019.)
20211029: FAA selected three airports to be eligible for grants to add civilian aviation operations at former and current military airfields: Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas; Mobile Downtown Airport in Mobile, Alabama; and Salina Regional Airport in Salina, Kansas. The Military Airport Program (MAP) provides funding as a set aside of the airport improvement program to help increase civilian aviation capacity at current or former military airports by funding projects such as surface parking lots, fuel farms, hangars, utility systems, access roads, cargo buildings, and other airfield-related infrastructure. (SEE June 9, 2017.)
20211029: As part of an ongoing 15-year FAA-sponsored research program titled Crashworthiness Certification of Composite and Metallic Aircraft Structures, the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) at Wichita State University conducted a full-scale fuselage drop test. Among other things, NIAR planned to use the data collected during the test to verify and validate finite element modeling techniques and human body models.
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