[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 40 (Thursday, March 1, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9394-9397]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 07-921]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration


Electronic Subscription Service for Airworthiness Directives and 
Special Airworthiness Information Bulletins

AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice of policy change.

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SUMMARY:  This notice publishes additional information about the FAA's

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planned transition to electronic distribution of airworthiness 
directives (ADs) and special airworthiness information bulletins (SAIB) 
through an e-mail subscription service. This notice gives more details 
and the schedule for the electronic distribution system, and addresses 
comments we received in response to Aircraft Engineering Division's 
previous notice about the plan. The previous notice was titled 
``Printing and Distribution Changes for Airworthiness Directives and 
Special Airworthiness Information Bulletins'' and was published in the 
Federal Register on August 24, 2006.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before April 2, 2007.

ADDRESSES: Send your comments on the planned policy changes 
electronically by logging onto the following Web site: http://www.faa.gov/aircraft/draft_docs/ or you may e-mail comments to: 9-amc-
air-140-policy. You may mail a hard copy of your comments to: Federal 
Aviation Administration, Aircraft Engineering Division, Delegation and 
Airworthiness Programs Branch, AIR-140, MMAC, P.O. Box 26460, Oklahoma 
City, OK 73125. Attn: Mary Ellen Anderson. Finally, you may deliver 
comments to: Federal Aviation Administration, Room 815, 800 
Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20591.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mary Ellen Anderson, Federal Aviation 
Administration, Aircraft Certification Service, Aircraft Engineering 
Division, Delegation and Airworthiness Programs Branch, AIR-140, 6500 
S. MacArthur Blvd., ARB 308; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73169; phone: 
(405) 954-7071; fax: (405) 954-2209.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Comments Invited

    Interested persons are invited to comment on the planned policy 
changes by submitting written data, views, or arguments to the above 
address. Comments received may be examined, both before and after the 
closing date, at the Federal Aviation Administration, Room 815, 800 
Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20591, weekends except Federal 
holidays, between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. The Director, Aircraft 
Certification Service, will consider all comments received on or before 
the closing date.

Background

    ADs are enforceable rules that apply to products (aircraft, 
aircraft engines, propellers, and appliances), published to address an 
unsafe condition per CFR Part 39 criteria. All ADs are currently 
available to the public via: (1) Federal Register at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/advanced.html; (2) FAA's Regulatory and Guidance 
Library (RGL) Web site at http://rgl/faa.gov; and (3) paper mailings to 
all registered owners and operators of the affected product.
    We also issue a type of AD called an emergency AD when an unsafe 
condition exists that requires immediate corrective action. We mail or 
fax emergency ADs to all registered owners and operators of the 
affected product, and publish a final rule version soon after in the 
Federal Register.
    SAIBs provide recommended actions that owners and operators may use 
to improve the safety of their products. Because the information 
contained in SAIBs is not mandatory, we do not publish SAIBs in the 
Federal Register. Effective January 2007, we added SAIBs to our RGL Web 
site, making it much easier to access and search on these safety 
documents.
    Paper mailing of ADs and SAIBs is a slow, expensive, and 
inefficient method of delivering safety-related information to affected 
parties, requiring a massive paper printing and distribution management 
system. In 2005, we processed and mailed more than 1,000,000 copies of 
ADs to affected owners and operators. It often takes 5 to 6 days for 
the owner or operator to receive the mailed copy. And, because of 
inaccurate or obsolete addresses in FAA's Aircraft Registry database, 
we typically receive thousands of returned ADs. In light of these 
difficulties as well as ongoing budgetary constraints, we are pursuing 
ways to improve our efficiency in distribution of safety information.

Discussion

    This notice introduces ``GovDelivery'' for all ADs and SAIBs--an e-
mail subscription management system designed specifically for the 
public sector. Owners, operators, and any interested party will be able 
to sign up through FAA's RGL Web site at http://rgl.faa.gov, and will 
receive both ADs and SAIBs once subscription is completed. Subscribers 
will be able to select to receive all documents or only those 
pertaining to a specific product make and model. They will also have 
the option to receive general categories such as `small airplane' or 
`engine.' The subscription service will generally deliver the AD or 
SAIB to each e-mail address within minutes after publication in our RGL 
Web site. All ADs will continue to be published in the Federal 
Register, and all ADs and SAIBs will continue to be available at our 
RGL Web site.
    Once we are assured that the GovDelivery service is working 
correctly, we will transition away from paper mailings of ADs. We are 
asking industry representative groups to help with this transition by 
making aviation stakeholders aware of the new subscription service for 
ADs and SAIBs. While we anticipate that GovDelivery service will 
provide a timely and cost-effective method of ensuring that affected 
parties receive the safety information they need, we will be monitoring 
the system to validate that the service is meeting the needs of our 
customers.
    We issued a previous notice in the Federal Register on August 24, 
2006, titled ``Printing and Distribution Changes for Airworthiness 
Directives and Special Airworthiness Information Bulletins.'' That 
notice outlined immediate changes to our mailing processes for ADs and 
SAIBs. We provided the public the opportunity to comment on that notice 
and have considered all comments we received. Our responses to those 
comments are provided following the policy discussed below.

Policy

    We expect to make the GovDelivery electronic e-mail service 
available for ADs and SAIBs available in May 2007. All interested 
parties are encouraged to subscribe to this service on our RGL Web site 
at http://rgl.faa.gov. Once GovDelivery is available and we are 
confident in the accurate and timely electronic dissemination of ADs 
and SAIBs to our subscribers, we will begin implementation of the 
following changes to our AD/SAIB distribution processes:
    (a) We will phase out paper mailing of ADs within a two-month 
period after GovDelivery becomes available except as described in (b) 
below. We will manage the phase-out based on the number and types of 
subscribers signed up in the GovDelivery system.
    (b) For now, we will continue to mail or fax emergency ADs to 
affected owners and operators. We are working on a method to deliver 
emergency ADs electronically in future, that will assure and record 
receipt when sent to affected parties.
    (c) We will discontinue the existing emergency AD subscription 
service that is currently available on the RGL Web site, since the 
GovDelivery service will send emergency ADs (and their final rule 
versions) to subscribers who have selected to receive ADs of that make/
model or category.
    (d) We will discontinue the existing SAIB subscription service that 
is

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currently available on the FAA Web site, to allow integration with the 
AD portion of the subscription service.
    (e) We will no longer mail or e-mail ADs or SAIBw to FAA offices 
and civil airworthiness authorities (CAAs) of other countries. Instead, 
we will encourage all interested FAA personnel as well as the CAAs to 
sign-up through GovDelivery to receive these documents.

Comments to Previous Notice

    Several commenters expressed support for the planned electronic 
distribution of ADs and SAIBs. One commenter stated that it would be 
easier to receive ADs and SAIBs electronically instead of ``logging on 
and searching through databases to find applicable ADs and SAIBs.'' We 
agree. GovDelivery service will allow subscribers to receive ADs and 
SAIBs by e-mail.

Recommendation to Continue Paper Mailings

    AOPA recommended that we continue paper mailing of ADs and SAIBs 
until we make enhancements to our e-mail subscription service to ensure 
the continued availability and dissemination of relevant safety 
information. We partially agree. Due to the existing e-mail service for 
SAIBs we discontinued these mailings in 2006. However, we will continue 
mailing ADs until we are assured the new GovDelivery service is 
available and working correctly for both ADs and SAIBs. To publicize 
the service we have added ``alerts'' on our RGL AD web page and are 
announcing the coming GovDelivery service on the back of every AD 
mailed out.

Recommendation To Update the SAIB e-mail Subscription Service

    AOPA recommended we enhance the existing SAIB e-mail service to 
allow selection of SAIBs based on aircraft or engine make and model. We 
agree. GovDelivery service will allow the user to subscribe to and 
receive SAIBs selected by make/model instead of having to receive all 
issued SAIBs.

Continuation of FAA AD Bi-Weekly

    A representative for a repair station asked whether the FAA will 
continue to compile and issue the bi-weekly list of ADs. We are making 
no change to the AD Bi-weekly process at this time, and will continue 
to publish the Bi-Weekly report until further notice.

Recommendation To Continue Mailing ``Engine type'' ADs

    Continental Airlines, AOPA, NATCA and others expressed concern that 
we misstated the user's ability to `register an engine' in the FAA 
Aircraft Registry. We agree that this terminology was incorrect, since 
aircraft owners cannot register their engine in the Registry. When they 
register an airframe they can choose to also identify the engine 
installed on the airframe; our intent was to use this engine data to 
support AD mailings. However, we have decided to continue mailing ADs 
to all owners of engine models identified in an AD, as well as owners 
of airframe models called out in the ``installed on, but not limited 
to'' applicability. We will continue this practice until we implement 
the GovDelivery service.

Recommendation To Mail/Final Rule version of Emergency ADs

    AOPA and NATCA stated that sometimes the content of an emergency AD 
changes between its issuance and the issuance of the final rule 
version, and for this reason we should mail the final rule copy of the 
emergency AD as well. We disagree. The final rule version must be 
substantively equal to the emergency AD to avoid serious legal 
consequences. If it changes in substance from the emergency AD version, 
we assign a different AD number and issue another AD. Since the final 
rule version is equivalent it is not necessary to mail it in addition 
to the emergency AD. Not that once the GovDelivery service is in place, 
both versions (the emergency AD and its final rule) will be e-mailed to 
subscribers for the AD's applicability.

Notification of the Public About This Policy Change

    NATCA wrote that the distribution of paper copies of ADs has been 
the standard for decades. This is a significant policy change that 
should be made aware to the public and open for public debate. NATCA 
requests that we withdraw the notice and resubmit it for comment. NATCA 
also states that FAA has been heavy-handed in lowering the safety level 
of aircraft by making significant changes in (other) policies. This 
final policy change must not be implemented for a period of time (six 
months) and be distributed in writing (published on paper) to all 
affected organizations, foreign authorities, and every registered 
aircraft owner, operator, repair stations, airline, etc. this would 
allow those in the public that do not currently have internet access 
time to obtain access.
    We partially agree. Since the previous notice, issued in August 
2006, contained a request for comments, we see no need to withdraw the 
notice and resubmit it. We also do not concur that we have in any way 
lowered the safety level of aircraft. Rather, we expect to improve 
safety by increasing the timeliness and accuracy of our delivery 
system. However, we agree that the public should have the opportunity 
to review and comment on these changes, which was the purpose of the 
previous notice as well as this one. With these notices we will have 
informed interested parties more than six months prior to our expected 
implementation date.

Conflict With Existing FAA Policy

    NATCA stated that this notice is in conflict with (AD Manual) M-
8040.1, Section 17 that mandates the procedures the FAA will follow to 
distribute paper copies to the public. The proposed policy must note 
any and all FAA policies/orders that will be affected. We agree that 
changes to the AD Manual will be necessary in order to align with this 
planned policy change. We will include these changes in a future 
revision to the AD Manual once this policy is finalized.

Notification of the Union About This Policy Change

    NATCA commented that FAA has failed to coordinate this planned 
policy change with the NATCA union. This is a significant change in the 
working conditions of the NATCA bargaining unit employees in AIR, 
especially AIR-140. If the agency proceeds with these changes, NATCA 
expects the agency to comply with the legal requirements to notify and 
negotiate with NATCA prior to implementation. No training has been 
identified for the workforce.
    FAA will comply with all legal requirements. Per the requirements 
we have assessed this planned policy change and have determined that 
there is no significant change to working conditions and any impact to 
bargaining unit employees is `de minimis.' No new skills, resources, 
equipment, or training are expected to be required to order to 
implement this change.

Questionable Use of Federal Funds

    NATCA stated that FAA should make public the current costs of 
publishing ADs and SAIBs, and it should be made part of the public 
record where the money that should have been used for publishing will 
be spent instead. It should also be noted if this is a ``business 
plan'' item and if any managers will receive an award/bonus/pay 
increase due to the implementation of this notice.
    We considered current costs as a factor in deciding to change this 
policy, and have estimated the savings in reduced printing costs at 
about $240,000

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per year. However, we have no way of determining where these funds will 
be spent instead, so are unable to provide this information. No 
managers have received or will receive extra compensation for its 
implementation. This policy change is not a ``business plan'' item but 
supports an FAA Flight Plan item.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2007.
Susan J.M. Cabler,
Acting Manager, Aircraft Engineering Division, Aircraft Certification 
Service.
[FR Doc. 07-921 Filed 2-28-07; 8:45 am]
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