[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 49, Volume 6]
[Revised as of October 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 49CFR821.54]

[Page 191-192]
 
                        TITLE 49--TRANSPORTATION
 
                              SAFETY BOARD
 
PART 821--RULES OF PRACTICE IN AIR SAFETY PROCEEDINGS--Table of Contents
 
 Subpart I--Special Rules Applicable to Proceedings Involving Emergency 
                 and Other Immediately Effective Orders
 
Sec. 821.54  Petition for review of Administrator's determination of 
emergency.

    (a) Time within which to file petition. A respondent may, within 2 
days after the date of receipt of an emergency or other immediately 
effective order of the Administrator, file with the Board a petition for 
review of the Administrator's determination that an emergency, requiring 
the order to be effective immediately, exists. This 2-day time limit is 
statutory and the Board has no authority to extend it. If the respondent 
has not previously filed an appeal from the Administrator's emergency or 
other immediately effective order, the petition shall also be considered 
a simultaneously filed appeal from the order under Sec. 821.53.
    (b) Form, content and service of petition. The petition may be in 
letter form. A copy of the Administrator's order, from which review of 
the emergency determination is sought, must be attached to the petition. 
If a copy of the order is not attached, the petition will be dismissed. 
While the petition need only request that the Board review the 
Administrator's determination as to the existence of an emergency 
requiring the order be effective immediately, it may also enumerate the 
respondent's reasons for believing that the Administrator's emergency 
determination is not warranted in the interest of aviation safety. The 
petition must be filed with the Board by overnight delivery service or 
facsimile and simultaneously served on the Administrator by the same 
means.
    (c) Reply to petition. If the petition enumerates the respondent's 
reasons for believing that the Administrator's emergency determination 
is unwarranted, the Administrator may, within 2 days after the date of 
service of the petition, file a reply, which shall be strictly limited 
to matters of rebuttal. Such reply must be filed with the Board by 
overnight delivery service or facsimile and simultaneously served on the 
respondent by the same means. No submissions other than the respondent's 
petition and the Administrator's reply in rebuttal will be accepted, 
except in accordance with paragraph (d) of this section.
    (d) Hearing. No hearing shall be held on a petition for review of an 
emergency determination. However, the law judge may, on his or her own 
initiative, and strictly in keeping with the prohibition on ex parte 
communications set forth in Sec. 821.61, solicit from the parties 
additional information to supplement that previously provided by the 
parties.
    (e) Disposition. Within 5 days after the Board's receipt of the 
petition, the chief law judge (or, if the case has been assigned to a 
law judge, the law judge to whom the case is assigned) shall dispose of 
the petition by written order, and, in so doing, shall consider whether, 
based on the acts and omissions alleged in the Administrator's order, 
and assuming the truth of such factual allegations, the Administrator's 
emergency determination was appropriate under the circumstances, in that 
it supports a finding that aviation safety would likely be compromised 
by a stay of the effectiveness of the order during the pendency of the 
respondent's appeal.
    (f) Effect of law judge's ruling. If the law judge grants the 
petition, the effectiveness of the Administrator's order shall be stayed 
until final disposition of the respondent's appeal by a law judge or by 
the Board. In such cases, the remaining provisions of this subpart 
(Sec.Sec. 821.55-821.57) shall continue to apply, unless the respondent, 
with the

[[Page 192]]

Administrator's consent, waives their applicability. If the petition is 
denied, the Administrator's order shall remain in effect, and the 
remaining provisions of this subpart shall continue to apply, unless 
their applicability is waived by the respondent. The law judge's ruling 
on the petition shall be final, and is not appealable to the Board. 
However, in the event of an appeal to the Board from a law judge's 
decision on the merits of the emergency or other immediately effective 
order, the Board may, at its discretion, note, in its order disposing of 
the appeal, its views on the law judge's ruling on the petition, and 
such views shall serve as binding precedent in all future cases.