2023-16094

Document Headings Document headings vary by document type but may contain the following: • the agency or agencies that issued and signed a document • the number of the CFR title and the number of each part the document amends, proposes to amend, or is directly related to • the agency docket number / agency internal file number • the RIN which identifies each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions See the Document Drafting Handbook for more details. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration • 14 CFR Part 25 • [Docket No.: FAA-2023-1442] ( printed page 51695) AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Department of Transportation (DOT). ACTION: Notification of availability. SUMMARY: This document announces SAE International (SAE) aerospace standard (AS) for use as a means of compliance to the applicable airworthiness standards for transport category airplanes. The FAA accepts SAE Designation AS6960 “Performance Standards for Seat Furnishings”, section 3.2.3 as a means of compliance with regard to the design of seat furnishings. DATES: Effective August 4, 2023. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dan Jacquet, Cabin Safety Section, AIR-624, Technical Policy Branch, Policy & Standards Division, Federal Aviation Administration, 2200 South 216th Street, Des Moines, WA 98198, telephone 206-231-3208, email Daniel.Jacquet@faa.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Background Under the provisions of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 1 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-119, “Federal Participation in the Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities,” effective January 27, 2016, the FAA participates in the development of consensus standards and uses consensus standards as a means of carrying out its policy objectives where appropriate. The FAA has been working with industry and other stakeholders through the SAE Aircraft Seat Committee to develop consensus standards for seat furnishings to prevent hazards, such as object entrapment. This document is the result of a safety recommendation, precipitated by an event where a passenger cell phone was crushed in the mechanism of a first class cabin seat on a British Airways Boeing 747 airplane that caused smoke and fire. A pilot declared an emergency landing due to the fire. The crew used four Bromochlorodifluoromethane (BCF) and two water fire extinguishers to extinguish the cell phone fire. The FAA investigators found that the first and business class electrical power seats could jam a cell phone or tablet within its mechanism and crush its lithium battery to cause a fire. In the 2017 safety recommendation, the British Airways maintenance department said they saw at least one cell phone per day get jammed in electrically operated seats. Also noted in the safety recommendation, American Airlines maintenance department reported receiving five calls per day to retrieve lost cell phones in seats at John F. Kennedy International Airport alone. According to the FAA website lithium battery incidents continue to be reported and are ongoing. ( https://www.faa.gov/​hazmat/​resources/​lithium_​batteries/​incidents) The FAA determined that seat designs that allow small objects ( e.g., cell phones, keys, wallets) to migrate to a location that prevents the return of critical seat features to their taxi, takeoff, and landing position, or be crushed to cause a potential fire hazard, is non-compliant with §§ 25.601 and 25.1301(a)(4). Section 25.601 states, in part, “The airplane may not have design features or details that experience has shown to be hazardous or unreliable.” In addition, § 25.1301(a)(4) states, “Each it…

Fonte: Federal Register (federalregister.gov). Texto original em inglês. Conteúdo sanitizado por segurança.