Significant Regulatory Activity

Air Safety Week, Oct 17, 2005

Flight attendant seat safety: Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) -- Sicma Aero Seat series 150 and 151 seats installed on Airbus A319, A320 and A321 airplanes

Oct. 4 FR Doc 05-19873 Docket No. FAA-2005-22109

Requires installation of protective fairings to prevent injury from folding mechanism. Based on report of a child catching his fingers in the folding mechanism of the bottom of the seat. Service bulletin dating to 1999 applies. Comments due Dec. 5.

Cost about $200 in labor; parts provided at no charge by seat manufacturer. Affects 5,500 seats installed worldwide, of which 698 aircraft in U.S. registry have them installed.

Electrical system safety: NPRM -- All Part 121 (regularly scheduled) airplanes of 30 or more passenger seats and/or 7,500 pound payload capacity

Oct. 6 FR Doc 05-19414 Docket No. FAA-2004-18379

This proposed rulemaking is the long-awaited requirement to assess and inspect wiring in commercial airliners that has been the attention of the Aging Transport Systems Rulemaking Advisory Committee (ATSRAC). This committee was envisioning major wire assessments, and its recommendations have been translated into this proposed rulemaking (see ASW, May 5, 2003).

The intent of the proposed action is to enhance the safety of commercial airliners by improving the design, installation and maintenance of wiring systems. The document says, "The FAA believes that traditional ways of addressing wiring are no longer enough."

Improved awareness of wiring system design and maintenance will be accomplished through a variety of means. First, it proposes that certification requirements for wiring be consolidated in a single part of the Part 25 certification requirements, know as Appendix H. Second, it introduces a new term, electrical wire interconnection system (EWIS), to acknowledge the fact that wiring is just one of many components. "The term EWIS means any wire, wiring device, or combination of these, including termination devices, installed in the airplane for transmitting electrical energy between two or more termination points." The FAA says, "There are many examples of inadequate EWIS designs that have later been determined to be unsafe." Adoption of these proposed actions will go a long way toward redressing this situation, the FAA maintains.

Third, the rulemaking proposes new system safety assessments for existing, proposed and modified EWIS by "raising the quality of the safety assessment with respect to EWIS failures that would not be identified using the traditional methods," the FAA says. "Airplane manufacturers have delivered airplanes that have wiring problems when they leave the factory, or such problems have later developed in service, as evidenced by resulting mandatory corrective actions [e.g., airworthiness directives]," the FAA noted.

Fourth, the rule mandates new maintenance requirements, and training of maintainers.

Fifth, the rule is intended to align efforts regarding fuel system wiring and components with the EWIS requirements now proposed for the rest of the airplane.

The rule is accompanied by a number of proposed advisory circulars (ACs), which are listed below. These are not all the ACs to be produced; the FAA will publish additional ACs in the Federal Register.

The rule is a significant development, as it applies to foreign operators flying to the U.S. and, in addition, must be harmonized with European regulations. As such, the rule runs to more than 110 pages. The associated ACs double, at the very least, the number of pages involved in this rulemaking. It requires type certificate (TC) holders (e.g., manufacturers) to "complete a comprehensive assessment of the EWIS of each 'representative' airplane for which they hold a TC, develop inspection and maintenance instructions for them, and incorporate those instructions into the airplane's ICA [instructions for continued airworthiness]."

Under the proposal, manufacturers have until Dec. 17, 2007, to complete the improved ICAs. TC holders will have 90 days to submit their plans for doing everythings within 90 days of the rule's passage. According to the FAA, the timeline is based on a number of considerations, including:

* Aligning the proposal with other rules in the aging airplane program, to include the fuel tank safety initiatives now under way and the pending widespread fatigue damage proposal.

* It allows adequate time for manufacturers to develop ICA and for operators to implement them.

* It establishes June 16, 2008, as the deadline for applying the ICA to supplemental type certificates (STCs), which means modifications and additions to the factory-installed EWIS. The proposed rule is not applicable to already issued STCs.

The rule is an outgrowth of the TWA Flight 800 and Swissair Flight 111 accidents, which were investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the U.S. and by the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada, respectively. As a result of their investigations, both the NTSB and the TSB had much to say about the state of wiring: