Proposed Rule Follows Midway Runway Overrun

Discussion of runway length has been very much in the public eye this week, but after last December's overrun accident of a Southwest 737 off a snow-filled runway, the FAA immediately went to work analyzing runway length decisions.

The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) reports the FAA conducted an internal audit into its own rules and regulations and discovered about half of all air carriers did not have formal procedures for determining safe runway length under less than ideal conditions. Those operators who did make allowances for poor runway conditions frequently had wildly varying rules.

The FAA cites as one example, the credit for the use of thrust reversers in the landing performance data was not uniformly applied and pilots may not have been aware of those differences. 

Based on its findings, the FAA intended to immediately require all part 91(K), 121, 125, and 135 turbojet operators to have procedures in place to ensure a full-stop landing with at least a 15% safety margin beyond the actual calculated landing distance. On Friday, however, the FAA agreed to hold off mandatory compliance with the proposed rule.

Sources at the NATA tell ANN the organization welcomed Friday's issuance of a Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO) titled “Landing Distance Assessment at Time of Arrival for Turbojets.”

A SAFO is considered highly recommended, but not strictly mandatory as would be an FAA regulation.

NATA states it convinced the FAA that their proposed rule was regulatory in nature and thus required to follow formal rulemaking processes which require a specific period of public comment and the issuing of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). 

“The association is very pleased with the FAA’s decision to issue this recommendation through a SAFO and not through inappropriate regulation by notice or OpSpec [operational specification]” said NATA President James K. Coyne. “No federal agency is above the rulemaking process and the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act.”

FMI: www.nata.aero, More Information on FAA SAFOs