Full FAA Chronology at this link.
19520105: Using Douglas DC-6As, Pan American World Airways inaugurated the first all-cargo air service across the North Atlantic.
19720105: Betty C. Dillon, a career civil servant, became the first woman to be sworn in as Minister of the U.S. Government to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
19990105: FAA announced it would revise the implementation schedule for the Wide Area Augmentation System to allow more time to complete development of a critical software safety package that would monitor, correct, and verify the performance of the system. FAA rescheduled the original July 1999 commissioning date for phase 1 of WAAS to September 2000. (See December 9, 1998; January 29, 1999; April 6-9, 1999.)
20000105: FAA proposed a rule that would require agency certification of companies hired by the airlines to perform security screening at airports. The rule would set standards for companies providing security screening, strengthen training and testing standards for screeners, and impose more stringent experience and training requirements on screening company managers and instructors. (See December 21, 1999; May 19, 2000.)
20020105: Fifteen-year-old Charles Bishop, a flight student, took off in a Cessna, leaving his instructor behind, and crashed the plane into the Bank of America Plaza in downtown Tampa, Florida. Bishop, the only fatality in the crash, ignored warnings from an intercepting Coast Guard helicopter to land. The crash rekindled the debate surrounding the security of general aviation, spurred another round of meetings among top security officials, and lead FAA to issue a Flight Standards Service notice proposing eleven recommendations for possible security enhancements around airports. The proposed enhancements included having separate ignition and door lock keys for aircraft, limiting student pilots’ access to aircraft keys until they reached a specific point in the training curriculum, keeping student pilots under supervision of a flight instructor at all times, establishing positive identification of any student pilot before every flight lesson, and requiring a parent or legal guardian to co-sign enrollment applications for students who were not legal adults. Other recommendations called for aircraft owners to take appropriate steps to secure unattended aircraft. (See December 20, 2001; January 15, 2002.)
20150105: The Department of Transportation issued a final rule to implement Section 403 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 regarding the carriage of musical instruments as carry-on baggage or checked baggage on commercial passenger flights operated by air carriers. Effective March 6, the rule required carriers to allow a passenger to carry into the cabin and stow a small musical instrument, such as violin or a guitar, in a suitable baggage compartment (for example, the overhead bin or under the seats) in accordance with FAA safety regulations. The rule also encouraged carriers to consider modifying their programs to allow the stowage of large musical instruments in passenger seats, provided all safety requirements were met.
20200105: Boeing and FAA confirmed they were reviewing a wiring issue that could potentially cause a short circuit on the grounded 737 MAX. During an inspection, Boeing found two bundles of wiring close together, which, if not properly separated, could led to a short circuit. (See December 16, 2019; June 29, 2020.)
20230105: FAA announced the names of 24 aviation experts to review Boeing’s safety management processes and how they influenced Boeing’s safety culture after two fatal 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people. The panel, required by Congress under a 2020 law to reform how FAA certifies new airplanes, included MIT lecturer and aerospace engineer Javier de Luis, whose sister was killed in a MAX crash, as well as experts from NASA, FAA, labor unions, Airbus, Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines, GE Aviation, FedEx Express, and Pratt & Whitney. The panel had nine months to complete its review and issue findings and recommendations. (See September 22, 2022; March 30, 2023.)