This Day in FAA History: July 2nd

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19260702: A drop of tree seeds over a burned area in Hawaii on this date was the first recorded instance of reforesting by airplane.
19320702: Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. presidential candidate to fly when he chartered a Ford Trimotor from Albany to Chicago to address the Democratic National Convention. (See January 14, 1943.)
19370702: A Lockheed Electra 10E carrying navigator Fred J. Noonan and famed pilot Amelia Earhart was reported overdue at Howland Island in the Pacific, a stop on an eastward trip planned as the first flight to follow an equatorial path around the globe. A massive search failed to locate the aircraft, and theories as to its fate abound.
19810702: PATCO’s nine-member executive board recommended unanimously that the union’s members reject the tentative contract agreed to on June 22 by PATCO President Robert Poli and Secretary of Transportation Drew Lewis. Poli also voted to reject the contract, although he had stated that he was pleased with the settlement at the time of its negotiation. On July 29, PATCO announced that its members rejected the tentative contract by a vote of 13,495 to 616. Two days later, on July 31, PATCO President Robert Poli announced at a press conference in Washington that his union would go on a nationwide strike beginning on Monday, August 3, unless the government met PATCO’s demands. (See June 22, 1981, and August 3, 1981.)
19820702: The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization filed a request for liquidation under Chapter 7 of the Federal Bankruptcy Act. According to Gary Eads, who had become PATCO’s president on January 1, 1982, the union had about $5 million in assets but owed $40 million, including $33.4 million to the airlines for violating a 1970 Federal court anti-strike injunction. Last November 25, PATCO had filed a motion in Federal court seeking to freeze its assets while it reorganized under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Act. After filing to liquidate under Chapter 7, Eads declared, “It is over for PATCO. The union is gone.” (See December 31, 1981, and June 19, 1987.)
19820702: Truck driver Larry Walters reached a reported 16,000 ft. over Long Beach, Calif., during a 45- minute flight in a lawn chair tied to balloons, crashing into a power line on descent but alighting unharmed. FAA fined Walters $1,500 for the escapade.
19930702: Mississippi River flooding that began to disrupt air traffic control operations on this date closed 36 general aviation airports and two FAA towers. One heavily damaged Automated Flight Service Station remained closed for several months after the flood. FAA response to the disaster included activation of a temporary tower in the St. Louis area.
19940702: A USAir DC-9 crashed while attempting to land at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, killing 37 of the 57 persons aboard. The accident illustrated the continuing problem of wind shear. As part of its ongoing efforts to combat this hazard, FAA on July 20 commissioned the first Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR). The agency had commissioned a total of 22 TDWRs by the end of CY1996. (See November 2, 1988.)
19960702: Vice President Gore announced NASA’s selection of Lockheed Martin to build the X-33, an unmanned, reusable spacecraft intended as step toward replacing the space shuttle. The experimental craft would be capable of suborbital flight 50 miles high. NASA stated that the project should lead to a fleet of privately owned and operated vehicles to carry both government and industry payloads.
20040702: FAA announced it had issued a license to create, at the Mojave Airport in California, the first inland commercial space launch site, and the fifth licensed commercial spaceport, in the U.S. With this announcement, East Kern Airport District could operate the Mojave site in support of suborbital reusable launch vehicle missions. (See April 1, 2004; December 23, 2004.)
20100702: The Department of Transportation signed an Open-Skies Agreement with Barbados that liberalized air services for airlines of both the U.S. and Barbados. Barbados became the 99th U.S. Open-Skies partner. (See May 4, 2010; November 11, 2010.)
20130702: Effective this date, a new FAA rule amended design requirements in the airworthiness standards for transport category airplanes to minimize the occurrence of design-related flightcrew errors. The requirements enabled a flight crew member to detect and manage his or her errors when the errors occurred. The rule eliminated regulatory differences between U.S. and European Aviation Safety Agency airworthiness standards without affecting current industry design practices.
20140702: NTSB denied a petition for reconsideration of its findings in the investigation of the 1996 TWA Flight 800 crash. The TWA 800 Project, which filed the petition, claimed a detonation or high-velocity explosion could have caused the crash. NTSB said the crash was the result of an oxygen buildup in a partially empty fuel tank that caused on explosion that destroyed the plane in flight.
20140702: Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced a final rule that expanded the Department’s requirement that air carriers report to the Department incidents involving the loss, injury, or death of an animal during air transport. The revised rule required, for the first time, all covered carriers file a calendar-year report that included the total number of animals transported in the calendar year as well as the total number of animals that were lost, injured, or died during air transport in the calendar year, if any. The rule would become effective on January 1, 2015.
20200702: Transportation Secretary Chao announced public health guidance to airlines and airports for the recovery of the air transportation system from the COVID-19 public health emergency. The Departments of Transportation, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security developed the “Runway to Recovery.” It provided general guidance and recommended specific public health measures airlines and airports should take to mitigate risks associated with COVID-19. The recommendations included
The measures included:
* Educating and communicating with passengers and employees
* Passengers should wear face coverings everywhere in the air transportation environment
* Promoting social distancing
* Enhancing disinfection and cleaning procedures
* Requiring health assessments from passengers and employees
* Collecting passenger contact information to enable notification in the event of suspected or confirmed exposure to COVID-19, a process known as contact tracing
* Protecting employees and separating passengers and crew
* Minimizing in-person interaction and shared objects, documents and surfaces
* Reporting the daily status of public health risk mitigation efforts
* Enhancing airport security checkpoint operations to reduce exposure
* Using new technology to support mitigation measures