This Day in FAA History: August 16th

Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19650816: A series of three Boeing 727 accidents within three months began as a United Air Lines flight crashed into Lake Michigan for undetermined reasons, killing all 30 people aboard. On November 8, an American 727 crashed in Kentucky on approach to Greater Cincinnati Airport, killing 58 of the 62 people aboard. CAB later determined the probable cause was the crew’s failure to properly monitor the altimeters. On November 11, a United 727 crash landed at Salt Lake City. All 91 occupants survived the impact, but 43 died of the effects of postcrash flames and smoke (see September 20, 1967). CAB later cited the probable cause as the pilot’s failure to arrest an excessive descent rate. On November 12, FAA declared it could find no pattern in the mishaps and hence it would be premature to ground the 727, about 190 of which were in operation.
19850816: Transportation Secretary Dole released a report on FAA’s Flight Standards programs by the Safety Review Task Force that she had created in December 1983 to examine the safety programs of all the Department’s modal administrations. The report identified four problem areas: difficulty in carrying out timely actions; lack of uniformity in interpreting rules and policies; sometimes ineffective communications within FAA and with the aviation community and general public; and expanded autonomy at FAA regional offices and some headquarters offices that had inhibited the accomplishment of program objectives. (See February 20, 1986.)
19850816: FAA announced that it would implement a new policy on drug and alcohol abuse involving agency employees in safety-related positions. The agency’s pilots, safety inspectors, air traffic controllers, police officers, and firefighters would be given urinalysis tests upon hiring and thereafter during their annual physical examinations. Penalties for using illicit drugs or alcohol abuse either on or off duty ranged from dismissal to reassignment. Employees who completed a treatment program might return to their original positions, but would be subject to random screening. A second offense would result in firing. The testing procedures became effective in February 1987. (See September 22, 1984, and September 9, 1987.)
19870816: A Northwest Airlines MD-80 crashed on takeoff at Detroit, killing all but one of the 157 persons aboard as well as two persons on the ground. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) cited the probable cause as the crew’s failure to use the taxi checklist to ensure that the flaps and slates were extended for takeoff. A contributory factor was an unexplained absence of power to the airplane takeoff warning system. FAA actions in response to the accident and to NTSB recommendations included required changes to MD-80 warning systems and steps aimed at improving flightcrew performance.
20000816: British Airways grounded its fleet of Concorde supersonic jetliners a month after an Air France Concorde crashed outside Paris, raising safety concerns about all of these planes. Air France suspended its Concorde flights immediately after this crash, the first in the Concorde’s 24 years of commercial service, killed 113 people. British Airways, the only other airline that operated the jets, canceled flights for a day after the accident, but then resumed them, saying it had conducted thorough checks and was confident of the safety of its fleet of these aircraft. British Airways grounded its fleet again, however, after receiving formal word that French and British aviation regulators intended to revoke the certificates of airworthiness for all Concordes.
20010816: FAA unveiled a new initiative designed to enhance the continued safety of aircraft wiring systems from their design and installation through their retirement. FAA based its Enhanced Airworthiness Program for Airplane Systems (EAPAS) on results from an intensive data-gathering effort on aircraft wiring systems done in cooperation with industry. EAPAS combined a variety of near- and longer-term actions into a plan to increase awareness of wiring system degradation, implement improved procedures for wiring maintenance and design, and spread that information throughout the aviation community. FAA’s overall aging transport non-structural systems program, an effort begun in October 1998, was an expansion of the agency’s aging aircraft program. (See October 1, 1998; May 22, 1999; October 6, 2005.)
20190816: The Italian aircraft manufacturer Tecnam announced FAA had awarded a type certificate to its P2012 Traveller, an 11-seat commuter plane. The aircraft first flew in July 2016 and received EASA type certification in December 2018.