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WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration referred 43 more unruly passenger cases to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for criminal prosecution review during the past year.
The FAA has now referred more than 310 of the most serious cases to the FBI since late 2021 under a partnership aimed at ensuring unruly airline passengers face criminal prosecution when warranted. When the FAA...
WASHINGTON–The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposes a $73,000 civil penalty against Zipline International Inc., of Concord, North Carolina, for allegedly violating drug and alcohol testing regulations.
The FAA alleges that between June 13, 2022, and Oct. 31, 2022, Zipline failed to subject 10 employees who performed safety-sensitive work to random drug and alcohol testing. The employees performed aircraft maintenance or flight crewmember duties....
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today announced more than $636 million for 320 grants in 46 states and American Samoa to improve our nation’s airport infrastructure.
“From passenger travel to cargo operations, the Biden-Harris Administration continues to make our aviation system safer, more accessible, and more resilient through initiatives like the Airport Improvement Program,” said U.S....
FAA Drone and AAM Symposium
Baltimore Convention Center
Baltimore, Maryland
Thanks, Jodi (Jodi Baker, Deputy Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety, FAA) for the terrific introduction and a hearty welcome to all of you to Charm City. For those of you who have spent any time in Baltimore, you know, it really is a special place. I send greetings on behalf of Administrator Whitaker. He's sorry he wasn't able to join you but, it really is a privilege and honor for me to be here in his stead.
I'm excited about this ninth FAA Drone and AAM symposium and I hope all of you are too. The event brings together a broad range of stakeholders to discuss safety and emerging technologies in our National Airspace System. And it promises to connect our communities like never before. This collaborative effort is essential to our collective success.
When it comes to drones and advanced air mobility, the future is now. We've been talking about integrating drones into the National Airspace System for more than a decade now. And at times, the pace of progress has been frustratingly slow. But today, I'm happy to say that the full-scale integration of drones is clearly within reach. We're also seeing significant progress in making AAM services to communities of all sizes and all geographic regions a reality.
This progress is marked by an unflagging commitment to enhancing aviation safety, developing the workforce of the future, ensuring equitable access to aviation services, partnering internationally, and to environmental stewardship.
The FAA has a long and successful history of safely introducing new technologies into the NAS. Our approach is to ensure maximum flexibility within the existing regulations to integrate drones and AAM into the NAS. We're using our proven safety first, data driven, process oriented and methodical approach to certify new aircraft and new types of operations to ensure that we remain the safest aerospace system in the world. We are evaluating infrastructure, cybersecurity, and data requirements, as well as the effects of noise and other environmental considerations to support both drone and AAM operations.
It is always an exciting time to be in the aviation sector, but never more so than now. On the drone front, we've already seen how drones can lower the cost of delivery for retail and healthcare. Drones will also drive integrated services such as delivery applications, E-commerce platforms, and parcel carrier services, improving the quality of life for Americans and creating economic growth in communities across the country from rural to urban.
In the Dallas Fort Worth area, for example, drones are delivering small grocery and pharmacy items in as little as 30 minutes. We'll be hearing more today's session titled “A Nexus in Texas: Delivering Commerce” about these exciting activities.
Now, the FAA in collaboration with industry is supporting industry in developing validation standards and evaluating the maturation of UAS traffic management or UTM services in a real-world environment.
This year, the FAA has landmark legislation in the Reauthorization Act that provides us with critical safety and advancements and sets our path for advancing innovative aviation technologies, including prioritization of rulemaking for beyond visual line of sight operations or BVLOS.
The BVLOS aviation rulemaking committee final report is the catalyst for BVLOS operations, as well as UTM. Many of you recall the initial steps required to fly your drone within visual line of sight. With strong leadership and support from industry, we are now moving rapidly to an era that wasn't possible even just a few years ago.
For instance, FAA is making great progress on our what we call normalizing UAS Beyond Visual Line of Sight Notice of Proposed Rulemaking or our BVLOS rulemaking. This rulemaking aims to ensure that we can normalize operations in the NAS and ensure that all operators big and small, can provide safe and efficient operations and services where traditional air traffic control services are not provided.
The FAA's goal is to publish this rule before the end of the year or very early next year for notice and comment. The rule if finalized as proposed will provide the UAS industry with the regulatory framework it so urgently needs. We're also pairing this rule with the 2209 Rule which will address operations near critical infrastructure. So, the two are expected to travel together both for notice and comment and publication later this year or early next year.
As for Advanced Air Mobility, the future is equally bright. Collaboration again, is key to successfully advancing the exciting prospect of Advanced Air Mobility. Collectively, we must ensure that the new generation of electric, vertical takeoff and landing and other emerging aircraft maintain the high level of safety of today's civil aviation and that all of us are working to make that happen.
We have certification regulations in place that will allow manufacturers to achieve our safety standards in innovative ways. Work continues to finalize with operating framework with standards for pilots to operate aircraft with flying characteristics above helicopters and airplanes. We expect to have that rulemaking finalized by late October or early November.
Please let me note some additional key milestones along the way. Nearly two years ago, President Biden assigned the Advanced Air Mobility Coordination and Leadership Act. The Act directs a whole of government AAM strategy for coordinating activities related to safety, operations, infrastructure, physical security, cybersecurity, and the government’s investment in coordination that is needed to mature the AAM ecosystem.
The FAA is part of the AAM interagency work group that has been led by the Department of Transportation. We are collaborating with more than 15 federal agencies on an AAM national strategy. For those of you who are involved in some of the early drone integration work, I think you can appreciate that this time around, we're trying to be much better organized across the federal government. The conclusions and recommendations of that interagency workgroup are expected later this year. And you can learn more about the Interagency Working Group at the special breakout session tomorrow morning.
We've taken a number of additional steps forward over the past year or so. We've issued version 2.0 of the Urban Air Mobility concept of operations, an updated blueprint that offers a framework of operations and anticipated levels of maturity. Last summer, right around the time of this this convening, we proposed a comprehensive rule for training and certifying AAM pilots, which we know as the powered lift proposed SFAR. As I mentioned earlier, we're working to finalize this rule later this fall. This rule is going to be pivotal to providing certainty to pilots and the industry on what the requirements and expectations are to operate these aircraft so that they can take those into consideration as they work to certify their aircraft. We also expect to provide a type certificate for the first AAM aircraft before the end of 2025.
To further pave the way, we released an implementation plan detailing the steps that the FAA and others will need to take to safely integrate Advanced Air Mobility in the near term. And we put together a cross functional FAA team which we call Innovate 2028 which aims to establish an operational AAM ecosystem at one or more key sites in the NAS by 2028. This will also support companies striving to begin initial AAM operations before 2028.
We are creating the foundation to enable this capability through innovation teams, which we call ITeams. I encourage you to attend the session later this afternoon about “Flight: the FAA's Process for Understanding, Planning, and Enabling Operations at Specific Sites.”
The FAA is also working to integrate AAM operations into the NAS beyond 2028 at scale. We are researching AAM concepts and considering possible further rulemaking for scheduled and on demand operations that may have a remote pilot or operate autonomously in certain conditions.
In all our work, whether it's drone and AAM integration or other new entrance into the airspace we will continue to engage representatives from federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government stakeholders, partners from foreign authorities and other industries, and the greater aviation community. You will notice that many sessions include these stakeholders, and we look forward to continuing to interact with them. Always. Please join our team later today for the session on “State, Local, Tribal, Governmental Challenges and Opportunities.” And tomorrow, consider attending the session titled "Won't you be my neighbor? Community Engagement for New Entrants". All of these efforts will evolve as technologies mature, as we better understand the operational characteristics of these new aircraft, and as we establish flexible standards and rules that assure safety.
While the US wants to remain a global leader in all things aviation, we also want and need to continue to engage and be strong partners with other countries. Our country ushered in the jet age, and we will do the same for drone and AAM in the world's most complex airspace. But we need and welcome the support of our global partners. These partnerships are essential to enhancing aviation safety, realizing the global economic benefits of these technologies, and taking advantage of these technologies to better serve communities around the nation.
Our continued engagement with international partners, which I've witnessed firsthand in meetings with Asian aviation authorities, and European aviation authorities earlier this year, and of course, our engagement with other countries and international organizations, remains the key to our success. Our collaborative international venues such as the Amsterdam Drone Week, the Singapore Air Show in the Dubai Air Show helped to advance mutual understanding, relationships, and dialogue, and identify viable solutions, all of which are critical to realizing a new paradigm in aviation.
While I was in Europe, I had the chance to highlight FAA's work to form a new ICAO AAM study group led by a talented member of the UK Civil Aviation Authority. This group is identifying the many facets of these new aviation technologies that the relevant ICAO technical panels must address to ultimately develop standards and recommended practices for AAM in the future.
We also continue to engage regularly with the heads of aviation regulatory authorities of Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and New Zealand as part of the National Aviation Authority network. This network’s goal is to promote cooperation on an array of emerging aviation challenges. To hear more about FAA's global engagements, I hope that you will attend tomorrow's lunch plenary session. It will focus on global collaboration in drone and Advanced Air Mobility innovation. We look forward to continuing international collaboration on future technologies and operational implementation to unlock the benefits of innovation.
In addition to all this, the FAA continues to take its environmental and sustainability obligations seriously. We will also be a global leader when it comes to sustainability. While there are numerous environmental and energy benefits to drones and AAM, we also need to evaluate potential adverse impacts under the National Environmental Policy Act. We can do this in a smart, efficient, and effective way. And the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 directs us to do just that. It requires the FAA to examine and integrate programmatic level approaches to the requirements of NEPA for aviation projects. Even prior to Congress's passage of the reauthorization, the FAA began to examine and implement programmatic approaches to NEPA compliance for drone related actions. Just earlier this month, we completed a programmatic NEPA review for drone package delivery in North Carolina, in collaboration with the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
I'll close with this thought. Like many of you, I have been keenly watching the action from the Paris Olympics and cheering on our inspiring American athletes. Seeing these Olympics reminded me that back in 1984, for those of you who watched those Olympics in LA, at the opening ceremonies, they began with the man flying with a jet pack from the roof of the Coliseum to the track below. Yes, this showcased the genius of American inventiveness. Yet jet packs were and still are an expensive novelty, not a common means of air transport.
In another four years, we will hold another Olympics in Los Angeles. I hope that in these games rather than being a promising concept, drones will be in widespread use, as well electric taxis to transport athletes, officials and spectators safely from venue to venue. This is the future that we are proud to help create. I can't wait to see what more we can do together. I thank you so much for your kind attention today and for the for all that you are all doing to bring this exciting future to fruition. I hope you enjoy the rest of your conference. Thanks so much for your time.
Good morning, everyone. It's great to be back in Oshkosh. Looking forward to a discussion in a little while, a few minutes, about general aviation with our FAA Leadership Team.
One of my favorite parts is starting off with some awards that are richly deserved by people who have contributed to the general aviation sector in really, really incredible ways. So, let's get started.
I'd like to start with the 2024 National Certified Flight Instructor of the Year Award. That award goes to Adam Magee.
Adam is an aviation professional who teaches more than 100 students each year through the Balloon Training Academy and runs the Lighter Than Air webinars. His aviation experience includes flight instruction, checkride prep, and private and commercial ground school instruction. Adam holds multiple FAA Basic, Advanced, and Master Wings and is a member of the National Association of Flight Instructions Board of Directors. Congratulations, Adam. Adam, please come up to accept your award.
The next award is the 2024 National Aviation Technician of the Year. The awardee is Marty King. Marty, come on out. Great to see you.
Marty, too, has an incredibly impressive record. He overhauled his first engine at the age of 15 and built his first airplane in high school. He established a GA service restoration and fabric shop, King Arrow Inc., in 1991. He started an intern in training programs at several colleges and universities and developed a STEM program to teach 13- to 18-year-olds how to build a plane. Then they flew the planes that they built, which is truly remarkable. As I said, these were middle school and high schoolers and is generally hard to get their attention. So, well done. Well done. Marty. Thank you for all that you're doing to encourage the next generation of aviation technicians and congratulations on earning the 2024 National Aviation Technician of the Year Award.
The next award goes to the 2024 FAA Safety Team Representative of the Year. We'd like to recognize Cary Grant. Carey is the 2024 FAASTeam Representative of the year. He has been an FAA Safety Team Representative since 2009. He's a Flight Instructor and Assistant Professor at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. He's also a retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and was a flight instructor for numerous military aircraft, including T-37s, C-141 Starlifter Transport, and Gulfstream G-IIIs. Following his military career, Cary was a civilian pilot and flew Boeing and Airbus aircraft as a captain with United Airlines. After that, Carry finally discovered general aviation. He also volunteers with Young Eagles, Navajo Airlift, and Sky Kids. Congratulations, Carry. Please accept your award as FAA Safety Team Representative of the Year.
Well, first, let me say it again. It's really a privilege to be here for my second year at Oshkosh, and my second year having the opportunity to address the group in this forum. FAA Administrator Whittaker had hoped to be here, but had some unexpected issues arise and needs to be home to take care of those.
So, it is a privilege and honor for me to be with our leadership to talk to you about some of the issues that we know you're most concerned about and interested in within general aviation, and then we'll have a dialogue with our FAA leadership.
I know that many of you came from great distances to be here this week. As you continue to fly this summer to see family and friends, make sure you're ready to fly. You know the conditions at the airport that you're leaving from; the conditions in the airspace that you're flying to; and the conditions at the airport at which you will arrive.
We urge you to take advantage of the many user-friendly tools available for GA pilots from the FAA. Like our popular From the Flight Deck video series on YouTube. These short videos use aircraft mounted cameras to capture runway and taxiway footage, as well as provide diagrams and visual graphics to highlight hotspots in the system. We currently have over 100 videos in the series and we cover airports in 40 different states. We have a lot of more a lot more videos in development. We do urge you to go there, take a look at the content, and please make suggestions about additional content that we should add.
To further help with the pre-flight planning. We also publish Pilot Handbooks for airports nationwide. Currently, there are more than 70 handbooks available for airports across the National Airspace, and they include airport specific cautions, airspace details, and information local controllers want pilots to know.
We continue to post arrival alert notices. These were developed to address wrong surface events at airports with a history of misalignment risk, where an aircraft could line up or land on the incorrect runway, taxiway, or airport. We've done a lot over the years to manage runway safety and we continue to step up those efforts in partnership and collaboration with you.
When it comes to safety, we know that the general aviation sector has a strong commitment to continuing safety improvement and safety culture. It starts long before the pilot gets in the aircraft and starts the engine, and it doesn't stop until they leave the airfield. At the FAA, we work tirelessly to ensure the skies are safe for everyone - from the commercial airlines soaring at high altitudes to the single engine Cessna taking off from your local airport to drones and eventually Advanced Air Mobility aircraft. We know safety doesn't happen in a vacuum.
The administrator is fond of saying, and I think many of you say this too, that safety is a team sport and it requires collaboration. That's where all of us, all EAA members, and the general aviation pilots come into play.
We continue to make steady and consistent progress in reducing the GA fatality accident rate year over year. Our current goal is zero point eight nine general aviation fatalities per 100,000 flight hours by 2028. We're currently experiencing zero point six one accidents per 100,000 flight hours. But our collective goal should be to reduce that number over time to zero. With the safety technologies, the education, and the mentorship that we see across the general aviation community - we believe that’s possible.
So, you have a critical role to play, as do we, along with our FAA webinars; educational activities and outreach efforts by our FAA Safety Team (or what we call “FAASTeams”); and other FAA programs. We partner very closely with industry to take deep dives into safety data to prevent problems before they occur.
We continue to use GA flight data in the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing Database, or what we call and many of you know as ASIAS, to improve decision making and make better, more informed decisions - sooner.
We currently have more than 2.3 million hours of flight data for light GA, voluntarily submitted into ASIAS. This includes data from operators, flight schools, and even the Civil Air Patrol. We've identified several risk areas using this data, including risks related to too low of an airspeed on climb out and geographic areas where the risk of a mid air collision is increased.
In the General Aviation Joint Safety Committee, or GAJSC, government and industry teams are also constantly on the lookout for new ways to prevent GA accidents. Today the committee has deployed nearly 50 risk mitigations, officially called safety enhancements, designed to address issues with a high safety risk - maintaining control during unusual attitudes, spatial disorientation, and engine failures to name just a few.
We are also continuing to work with you all on reducing pilot deviations in GA aviation. The Runway Safety Team examined specific safety issues at airports throughout the NAS. A product of this team includes the From the Flight Deck videos that I mentioned a few moments ago.
The “FAASTeam” Program has been offering operational presentations online and in person to increase awareness and insight. FAASTeam program managers participate in 300 plus Runway Safety Action Team meetings each year. Since March 2020, they have hosted nearly 200 seminars and 100 webinars on runway safety and avoiding pilot deviations. This is part of all of our ongoing efforts to make sure that GA pilots and the GA Community have the resources they need to better understand conditions at the airports and in the airspace as they fly their planes.
Pilots, your dedication - I should say your continued dedication to safety - is paramount. Please continue to hone your skills. Stay up to date on regulations and advocate for a strong General Aviation Community. We at the FAA value your feedback and your insights.
I want to talk next about the future of the NAS. It's a really exciting time.
As I was talking to Jack Pelton earlier today and EAA leadership - I said one of the things that I really, really love about AirVenture is the fact that you can see the past, present, and the future come together with all aspects of general aviation. It's always an exciting time to be in aviation, but it's never more exciting than it is today and it will be tomorrow.
The GA community has been an indispensable partner to the FAA in safely integrating new technologies into the NAS. We like to say that you are the incubators for the innovators. Innovation, almost across the spectrum, is happening in GA first and it's demonstrated in all the booths and everywhere you visit today. As you know, whether it's technology or its pilot competencies, it starts with the General Aviation Community. Then you see gradual uptake into commercial aviation and more sophisticated and complex operations, and that's a testament to your creativity and ingenuity. So, everything from electronic flight bags, automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (which we know is ATSB), composition construction technology. These are all examples of technologies that began in general aviation.
With the arrival of Advanced Air Mobility, or AAM, it's including air taxis, drones and smaller aircraft that can carry more people. This partnership will continue to be as critical as ever.
We are working now to enable the safe integration of AAM into the airspace through operating rules, aircraft certification, and pilot certifications. We expect to have some really exciting announcements over the next six months to one year, so stay tuned for that.
Last year when we were here, Acting Administrator Trottenberg had the pleasure of announcing our proposed rule on modernization of special air airworthiness certification rule, or what we all know is MOSAIC. That will significantly enhance the 2004 sport pilot, light sport aircraft rule and expand the scope of light sport aircraft certification and operations, including electric propulsion.
What that is going to do is provide more flexibility while ensuring a safe level of safety across the system. We received more than 3,500 comments on the proposal. The response was overwhelmingly positive both here at Oshkosh and through the comments we received. We're currently working through those comments to put together the final rule that we hope and expect to release by May of 2025. So, we will have a lot to talk about next year as well.
Earlier this year, the FAA granted two Part 135 Operators Certificates and issued the final airworthiness criteria for two AAM aircraft. These are important steps towards receiving certification and pilot training authorization. There are currently more than 100 companies expressing their intent to build or operate AAM. We can expect many of them to be established to grow to maturity within the incubator of general aviation.
The FAA is preparing for the safe integration of AAM operations by reviewing our general aviation guidance documents to ensure the AAM community will have the safety information and support that it needs. We are maintaining regular contact with AAM operators, industry associations, and local authorities to understand the issues and the challenges ahead and have solutions in place. Having aircraft type certification efforts run concurrently with operational certification activities minimizes the time between aircraft achieving FAA certification and entering commercial service.
The FAA also participates in the AAM interagency working group led by the Department of Transportation. This group is composed of more than 15 federal agencies with equities on these issues. Our objective is to develop and deliver a national AAM strategy that's cohesive, makes sense, and is scalable so that it works for the public at large.
Our foundational goal is for the introduction of next generation aircraft into our cities, suburbs, underserved and rural communities to occur safely, and ensure that the NAS and the next generation aircraft remain accessible to everyone regardless of where they may live.
While we champion innovation, the FAA must also regulate aviation. After all, safety remains our North Star as it does for you. We're obligated to ensure new entrants maintain the same high level of safety as traditional aircraft, appropriate to the risks they pose, which is why safety will ultimately drive the process and timeline for certification and integration of all emerging aircraft.
We will go through the same safety-first, data driven, process-oriented, methodical approach that has served us so well in the past. Our obligation as the aviation safety regulator is to ensure the introduction of this new generation of aircraft maintains a high level of safety today and into the future.
So, this week at AirVenture, please come visit us. If you haven't been to the FAA Safety Center yet, we're just a little way down the road. We have representatives from across our agency addressing runway safety, medical issues, airport issues. We have lawyers there. We have folks from our weather programs. A whole array of people that are there and looking forward to taking your questions.
We have an open-door policy, and we want to hear from you. Not just today but throughout the year. If you haven't already, please establish a good working relationship with your local FAA Field Office and your Runway Safety Teams at your home airports.
Check out those From the Flight Deck videos on our YouTube channel and our Pilot Handbooks on our website. Stay connected with us for the latest aviation safety news on social media. Besides YouTube, you can find us on X, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Together, we'll keep this the skies friendly, accessible, and most importantly safe. We can nurture the next generation of pilots and engineers and push the boundaries of what's possible in aviation.
I have to tell you this is this is my third day at EAA this year. I had the chance to be all over the area, seeing home built, Light Sport aircraft, the Warbirds, and Kid Venture. I had the incredible opportunity to meet one of the Tuskegee Airmen, James Harvey, yesterday. He just celebrated his one hundred and first birthday. I even went into the hypoxia chamber this morning, just to get an experience of the range of issues that are important to the General Aviation Community. It's incredible what you're doing. It's incredible to see the passion for aviation. Please continue doing it.
Together, the sky is no longer the limit. On that, let me bring in our FAA Leadership Team and we'll do a little fireside chat with Rob and then take questions from the audience. Thank you so much for your time.