[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:
    <bullet> Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
    <bullet> Fax: 202-493-2251.
    <bullet> 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.
    <bullet> 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