[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 52 (Thursday, March 19, 2009)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 11698-11699]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-5868]
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Proposed Rules
Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________
This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 52 / Thursday, March 19, 2009 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 11698]]
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
14 CFR Part 193
[Docket No. FAA-2009-0245]
Voluntary Disclosure Reporting Program
AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of Proposed Order Designating Information as Protected
from Disclosure.
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SUMMARY: The FAA is proposing that information provided to the Agency
to populate its Wildlife Hazard Database be designated by an FAA order
as protected from public disclosure in accordance with the provisions
of 14 CFR part 193. Under 49 U.S.C. 40123, the FAA is required to
protect the information from disclosure to the public, including
disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) or other
laws, following the issuance of such order. The designation is intended
to encourage continued voluntary reporting of wildlife hazard data.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before April 20, 2009.
ADDRESSES: You may send comments identified by docket number FAA-2009-
0245 using any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
Fax: 202-493-2251.
Mail: U.S. Department of Transportation, Docket
Operations, M-30, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New
Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590.
Hand Delivery: U.S. Department of Transportation, Docket
Operations, M-30, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New
Jersey Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.,
Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
For more information on the rulemaking process, see the SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION section of this document.
Privacy: We will post all comments we receive, without change, to
http://dms.dot.gov, including any personal information you provide. For
more information, see the Privacy Act discussion in the SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION section of this document.
Docket: To read background documents or comments received, go to
http://dms.dot.gov at any time or to Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey
Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday
through Friday, except Federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John Weller, Airport Safety and
Operations Division, AAS-300, Federal Aviation Administration, 800
Independence Ave., SW., Washington, DC 20591, telephone (202) 267-3778.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Comments Invited
The FAA invites interested persons to participate in this
rulemaking by submitting written comments, data, or views. We also
invite comments about the economic, environmental, energy, or
federalism impacts that might result from adopting the proposals in
this document. The most helpful comments reference a specific portion
of the proposal, explain the reason for any recommended change, and
include supporting data. We ask that you send us two copies of written
comments. We will file in the docket all comments we receive, as well
as a report summarizing each substantive public contact with FAA
personnel about this proposed rulemaking. The docket is available for
public inspection before and after the comment closing date. If you
wish to review the docket in person, go to the address in the ADDRESSES
section of this preamble between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday though
Friday, except Federal holidays. You may also review the docket using
the Internet at the Web address in the ADDRESSES section.
Privacy Act: Using the search function of our docket Web site,
anyone can find and read the comments received into any of our dockets,
including the name of the individual sending the comment (or signing
the comment on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.).
You may review DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal
Register published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78) or you may visit
http://dms.dot.gov.
Before acting on this proposal, we will consider all comments we
receive on or before the closing date for comments. We will consider
comments filed late if it is possible to do so without incurring
expense or delay. We may change this proposal in light of the comments
we receive.
If you want the FAA to acknowledge receipt of your comments on this
proposal, include with your comments a preaddressed stamped postcard on
which the docket number appears. We will stamp the date on the postcard
and mail it to you.
Availability of This Proposed Designation
You can get an electronic copy using the Internet by:
1. Searching the Department of Transportation's electronic Docket
Management System (DMS) Web page (http://dms.dot.gov/search);
2. Visiting the FAA's Regulations and Polices Web page at http://
www.faa.gov/regulations--policies/; or
3. Accessing the Government Printing Office's Web page at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html.
Background
Under 49 U.S.C. 40123, certain voluntarily provided safety and
security information is protected from disclosure to encourage persons
to provide the information to the FAA. The FAA must issue an order to
make certain findings before the information is protected from
disclosure. The FAA's rules implementing that section are in 14 CFR
part 193. If the Administrator issues an order designating information
as protected under 49 U.S.C. 40123, that information will not be
disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) or other
laws except as provided in 49 U.S.C. 40123 and 14 CFR part 193. This
proposed order is issued under 14 CFR 193.111, which sets out the
notice procedure for designating information as protected.
The FAA designates information as protected under this part when
the FAA finds that:
1. The information is provided voluntarily;
2. The information is safety or security related;
[[Page 11699]]
3. The disclosure of the information would inhibit the voluntary
provision of that type of information;
4. The receipt of that type of information aids in fulfilling the
FAA's safety and security responsibilities; and
5. Withholding such information from disclosure, under the
circumstances provided in this part, will be consistent with the FAA's
safety and security responsibilities.
Description of the Proposed Information Sharing Program
In an effort to monitor and analyze the hazards presented by
wildlife to aircraft operations, the FAA actively solicits voluntary
wildlife strike reports from a variety of sources such as pilots, air
traffic controllers, air carrier personnel, and airport operations
personnel. With this data, the FAA is able to analyze trends in order
to develop better wildlife management strategies for individual
airports and all civil/military aviation communities. These trends
include seasonal strike fluctuations, diurnal/nocturnal strike
comparisons, species identification, frequency, geographical
distribution, effect on flight and damage incurred. Monitoring strikes
also provides useful data regarding their frequency of occurrence
during a specific phase of flight, altitude, and distance from airport.
The information may also be used by the FAA to develop aircraft
certification standards that take into account the unique hazard posed
by wildlife threats.
The FAA has been collecting voluntarily submitted data from the
public since 1990. During this time, the number of strikes annually
reported more than quadrupled from 1,759 in 1990 to a record 7,666 in
2007. The increase in reports from 1990 to 2007 was likely the result
of several factors:
1. An increased awareness of the wildlife strike issue, an increase
in aircraft operations;
2. An increase in populations of hazardous wildlife species; and
3. An increase in the number of strikes.
Overall, there are over 100,000 wildlife strikes that have been
submitted from civil and military aircraft strikes. As a result of
these collection efforts, the FAA has a wildlife strike database that
is unparalleled.
When the FAA began collecting this data, it assured the entities
submitting the data that the submissions would not be made available to
the public. At that time, the FAA did not have the authority to provide
part 193 protection. However, the FAA has relied upon other voluntary
disclosure programs to obtain needed safety data prior to the enactment
of 49 U.S.C. 40123 and these other programs are presently covered by
part 193. The FAA believes that it is appropriate to extend this formal
protection to the bird strike database as well. The Agency is concerned
that there is a serious potential that information related to bird
strikes will not be submitted because of fear that the disclosure of
raw data could unfairly cast unfounded aspersions on the submitter.
The collection of this safety information has been successful not
only in part due to an increase in awareness and improved strike-
reporting technology but due to the fact that the reporting of strikes
is nonpunitive to airports and airlines. There are almost 100 separate
data fields in the strike database that allows the FAA to understand
wildlife strike hazards to aviation better. Cooperative analyses
between the FAA, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Branch summarized
this data into an annual report made available to the public. Such
analyses are critical to determining:
1. The economic cost of wildlife strikes;
2. The magnitude of safety issues; and most important; and
3. The nature of the problems (e.g., wildlife species involved,
types of damage, height and phase of flight during which strikes occur,
and seasonal patterns).
The information obtained from these analyses provides the
foundation for refinements in the development, implementation, and
justification of integrated research and management efforts to reduce
wildlife strikes. The FAA redacts certain information from the data
that is available to the public based on relevance or its sensitivity.
For example, while the FAA collects wildlife strike data for
specific airports, which it uses in its regulatory and oversight
activities for that individual airport, the FAA does not release data
regarding the submitter of the report. Here again, the FAA seeks to
encourage the open provision of data for use in its regulatory
activities. Drawing comparisons between airports is difficult because
of the unevenness of reporting. Other factors that must be considered
between airports and strike reporting are their different geographies,
operations, structures, onsite/offsite habitats, and personnel to name
a few. The complexity of the information warrants care with its
interpretation; releasing this information without benefit of proper
analysis would not only produce an inaccurate perception of the
individual airports and airlines but also inaccurate and inappropriate
comparisons between airports/airlines. Requests for data within the FAA
National Wildlife Strike Database have typically been for specific data
fields, individual airports or detailed portions of the database.
Responses from the FAA have addressed each request individually and
adequately. Airports voluntarily report bird strike data to understand
their wildlife hazards better and to streamline allocating wildlife
mitigation funding. Inaccurate portrayals of airports and airlines
could have a negative impact on their participation in reporting bird
strikes. It is the willingness of airports to participate, to better
understand, and to better address their unique set of wildlife hazards
that highlights why voluntary reporting works.
In short, the FAA sees a direct correlation between the protection
and provision of voluntary safety data. There is no question that the
data collected over the last 19 years has improved safety throughout
the world. It is imperative we do nothing to stifle this flow of
information. Protecting this data under 49 U.S.C. 40123 and 14 CFR part
193 will ensure this continued input.
Proposed Designation
Accordingly, the FAA proposes to designate the data in its Wildlife
Strike Database to be protected under 49 U.S.C. 40123 and 14 CFR part
193.
Issued in Washington, DC, on March 12, 2009.
Catherine M. Lang,
Acting Associate Administrator for Airports.
[FR Doc. E9-5868 Filed 3-18-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-P