This Day in FAA History: December 29th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19481229: CAA revealed details of a U.S.-U.K. agreement based on previous action by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The United Kingdom agreed to install an airway and traffic control system similar to that then in use in the United States. The United States would procure four low-frequency radio ranges to supplement the three already operating in the British Isles, and assist in installing the facilities as requested.
19691229: FAA abolished the Honolulu Area Office and transferred its functions to the regional office.
19701229: The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, enacted this date, required that most U.S. civil aircraft carry emergency locator transmitters (ELTs), also known as crash locator beacons, after December 30, 1973. The law also required ELTs on airplanes newly manufactured or imported after December 30, 1971. The requirement applied to most of the general aviation fleet, including supplemental air carriers, air taxis, and commercial operators. Exemptions included scheduled air carriers, rotorcraft, turbojets, experimental aircraft, agricultural planes, and training flights within 20 miles of the home base. The legislation was a response to concern over incidents in which persons survived an accident only to die because searchers were unable to locate the crash site. FAA implemented the legislation in a rule published on September 21, 1971. (See March 20, 1969, and January 2, 1974.)
19721229: An Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 crashed in the Everglades northwest of Miami, killing 99 of the 176 persons aboard. Two survivors died later as a result of their injuries in this first fatal crash of a wide-body airliner. The National Transportation Safety Board cited the probable cause as the flight crew’s failure to monitor flight instruments. Preoccupied with a malfunction of the landing gear position indicator, they allowed the aircraft to descend unnoticed.
19751229: A high-intensity bomb exploded in a coin-operated locker at New York’s La Guardia Airport, killing 11, injuring 54, and doing extensive damage to the main terminal building. The incident, provoking national concern and leading to the creation of a special government-industry task force, caused FAA to issue a rule (effective April 15, 1976) requiring that checked baggage be screened for inspection under a “profile” system. FAA also accelerated efforts to develop automatic equipment capable of detecting explosives in lockers and cargo holds (see September 1985). In the meantime, the agency stepped up its Explosive Detection K-9 Dog Handler Team program begun in 1972 (see November 29, 1977). Following the La Guardia bombing, lockers at nearly all U.S. airports were placed in areas where they could be under surveillance.
19791229: Enacted on this date, Public Law 96-171 required the National Institutes of Health to produce a study of FAA’s Age-60 rule (see March 15, 1960) in consultation with DOT. Within one year, NIH was to submit to Congress a study examining questions that included “whether an age limitation which prohibits all individuals who are sixty years of age or older from serving as pilots is medically warranted.”
The issue had come to a head because more airline pilots were reaching 60 than ever before, a trend that was expected to increase. The Pilots Rights Association, a group of some 300 older airline pilots, had waged a strong campaign against the rule. The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) was divided on the question, with many members (especially younger ones) favoring the rule. (Later, ALPA’s board endorsed the Age-60 rule in a November 1980 vote that reversed the union’s longstanding position on the issue.) Another factor that may have influenced the congressional debate was a fatal in-flight heart attack suffered by a 59- year-old Braniff captain on March 13, 1979. The outcome was a legislative mandate for a study rather than a change in the rule.
In response to P.L. 96-171, NIH requested the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, to prepare a study. Released to the public on April 2, 1981, this report did not recommended either retaining or abandoning the Age-60 rule. It did recommend, however, that FAA institute “a more rigorous and comprehensive medical examination” if it discontinued the rule. In August 1981, the National Institute on Aging also submitted a report to Congress with three basic recommendations: that the age-60 rule be retained for major airline pilots; that FAA extend the rule to all other pilots engaged in carrying passengers for hire; and that FAA conduct a systematic program to collect the medical and performance data necessary to consider relaxing the rule. (See March 30, 1984.)
19801229: The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) organized a “public awareness” campaign called Operation USA (Unity for Safe Airtravel). Shortly thereafter, the union threatened a general one-day work stoppage in March unless the President appointed a panel of independent experts to examine the question of crew complement. On March 5, 1981, President Reagan appointed a three-man task force headed by former FAA Administrator John L. McLucas to review FAA’s certification of the DC-9-80 for operation with a minimum cockpit crew of two pilots (see August 26, 1980). On July 2, the task force reported that the certification was proper and that a third crew member was not be justified in the interest of safety. The board also noted that safe operation by a two-pilot crew would be permitted by the designs of Boeing’s new 757 and 767 aircraft, and of the A-310 aircraft being developed by the European consortium, Airbus Industrie. On July 14, ALPA’s executive board voted unanimously to accept the findings of the task force.
19811229: President Reagan suspended the U.S. landing rights of the Soviet airline Aeroflot as part of sanctions enacted in response to repression in Poland. The action came soon after a temporary one-week suspension of Aeroflot’s U.S. operations imposed during November because of violations of the prescribed routes. (See June 19, 1973, and April 29, 1986)
20041229: Effective this date, the FAA and Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA) banned cargo shipments of non-rechargeable lithium batteries aboard passenger flights, saying these batteries posed a fire hazard when transported in the cargo hold of passenger aircraft. Airline passengers were allowed to carry on board and use, or pack in checked bags, personal computers and other consumer products that contain lithium batteries. The ban applied to all U.S.-carrier flights and those of foreign carriers into and out of the United States. (See October 8, 2010.)
20051229: In response to the requirements of the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, FAA proposed rulemaking to affect human space flight of crew and space flight participants. If adopted, the proposed rule would establish requirements for crew qualifications, training, and notification. It also would establish training and informed consent requirements for space flight participants. The regulation would also modify how financial details affecting space flight participants and crew would be accounted for and, though an additional regulation, how experimental permits would be issued. (See June 1, 2005; August 25, 2006.)
20141229: FAA amended special federal aviation regulation (SFAR) No. 113, “Prohibition Against Certain Flights in the Simferopol (UKFV) flight information region (FIR),” which prohibited certain flight operations in a portion of the Simferopol FIR by all U.S. air carriers, U.S. commercial operators, persons exercising the privileges of a U.S. airman certificate, except when such persons operated a U.S.-registered aircraft for a foreign air carrier, and operators of U.S.-registered civil aircraft, except when such operators were foreign air carriers. The action expanded the area in which flight operations by people subject to SFAR No. 113 were prohibited, to include all of the Simferopol (UKFV) FIR, as well as the entire Dnipropetrovsk (UKDV) FIR. (See July 17, 2014; October 22, 2015.)
20231229: SpaceX conducted a dual test of engines on the giant Starship and Super Heavy rocket stages at SpaceX’s Starbase proving ground in Boca Chica, Texas. The test, which lasted about 10 seconds, successfully fired all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster, which serves as the first stage of the Starship rocket.