13948 Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 50 / Wednesday, March 15, 1995 / Proposed Rules

1The Board has also investigated some public

aircraft accidents under memoranda of

understanding with various Federal agencies and

State and local governments.

license to specify Driscoll as Station

KMIQ(FM)’s community of license. See

59 FR 38950, August 1, 1994.

DATES: Comments must be filed on or

before May 1, 1995, and reply comments

on or before May 16, 1995.

ADDRESSES: Federal Communications

Commission, Washington, D.C. 20554.

In addition to filing comments with the

FCC, interested parties should serve the

petitioner, or its counsel or consultant,

as follows: Lee J. Peltzman, Esq., Shainis

& Peltzman, Suite 200, 2000 L Street,

Washington, D.C. 20036 (Counsel for

petitioner).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Pam

Blumenthal, Mass Media Bureau, (202)

418–2180.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a

synopsis of the Commission’s Further

Notice of Proposed Rule Making, MM

Docket No. 94–84, adopted March 1,

1995, and released March 10, 1995. The

full text of this Commission decision is

available for inspection and copying

during normal business hours in the

FCC’s Reference Center (Room 239),

1919 M Street, NW, Washington, D.C.

The complete text of this decision may

also be purchased from the

Commission’s copy contractor, ITS, Inc.,

(202) 857–3800, 2100 M Street, NW,

Suite 140, Washington, D.C. 20037.

Provisions of the Regulatory

Flexibility Act of 1980 do not apply to

this proceeding.

Members of the public should note

that from the time a Notice of Proposed

Rule Making is issued until the matter

is no longer subject to Commission

consideration or court review, all ex

parte contacts are prohibited in

Commission proceedings, such as this

one, which involve channel allotments.

See 47 CFR 1.1204(b) for rules

governing permissible ex parte contacts.

For information regarding proper

filing procedures for comments, see 47

CFR 1.415 and 1.420.

List of Subjects in 47 CFR Part 73

Radio broadcasting.

Federal Communications Commission.

John A. Karousos,

Chief, Allocations Branch, Policy and Rules

Division, Mass Media Bureau.

[FR Doc. 95–6339 Filed 3–14–95; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6712–01–F

NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION

SAFETY BOARD

49 CFR Parts 800, 830, and 831

Reporting of Public Aircraft Accidents

AGENCY: National Transportation Safety

Board.

ACTION: Notice of proposed rule and

request for comments.

SUMMARY: The NTSB is proposing

various revisions to its rules to

implement P.L. No. 103–411, which

expands the scope of its jurisdiction to

include investigations of certain public

aircraft accidents.

DATES: Comments are invited by April

14, 1995.

ADDRESSES: An original and 2 copies of

any comments must be submitted to:

Office of General Counsel, National

Transportation Safety Board, 490

L’Enfant Plaza East, SW., Washington,

DC 20594, Attention: Public Aircraft

Rules.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jane

F. Mackall, (202) 382–6540.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On

October 25, 1994, President Clinton

signed H.R. 2440, the Independent

Safety Board Act Amendments of 1994.

Codified as Public Law No. 103–411

(the Act), it is effective on April 23,

1995, and directly affects aircraft

operated by and for Federal, State and

local governments. The core of the

legislation is amendments to the Federal

Aviation Act of 1958 to expand the

Federal Aviation Administration’s

(FAA) safety regulation to previously

exempt ‘‘public’’ aircraft, and the FAA

is in the process of developing

implementing rules and guidance. The

Act, however, also changed the

jurisdiction of the National

Transportation Safety Board (NTSB or

Safety Board).

Presently, jurisdiction of the Safety

Board to investigate aircraft accidents

depends on whether the aircraft

involved are ‘‘civil’’ or ‘‘public.’’ An

aircraft is either one or the other. These

two terms are defined in the Federal

Aviation Act of 1958, as amended, 49

U.S.C. 40102(a) (17) and (37). Until

now, the Safety Board’s statutory

investigation authority extended only to

civil aircraft, although accidents and

incidents involving certain public

aircraft are required to be reported to the

NTSB within 10 days. See 49 CFR

830.20.1

Section 3(c) of the Act expands the

Safety Board’s statutory role in

investigating aircraft accidents to

include all ‘‘public’’ aircraft other than

those operated by the Armed Forces or

by a United States intelligence agency.

Thus, with these two exceptions,

aircraft operated by Federal, State and

local governments will, as of April 23,

1995, be subject to Board jurisdiction for

the purposes of accident investigation in

the U.S., in addition to any reporting

requirements. We propose in this

proceeding to make changes to our

regulations, as necessary to reflect the

Act.

The key question the Safety Board

must answer is: when does an accident

‘‘involve’’ an aircraft ‘‘operated by’’ the

Armed Forces or ‘‘intelligence agencies’’

so as to qualify for the exception to our

public aircraft jurisdiction? As to what

organizations would be included in the

term ‘‘Armed Forces,’’ we consider the

National Guard, and the Coast Guard,

for example, to be within the definition,

and propose to continue that practice.

We construe the term ‘‘intelligence

agency’’ strictly, and propose only to

apply it to those Federal agencies that

are so named or categorized (for

example, in their enabling statutes).

In defining the term ‘‘operated by,’’

there is no issue of interpretation when

the military is flying military-owned

aircraft (assuming only one aircraft is

involved in any accident/incident).

Such an accident would be outside our

jurisdiction. But, if the aircraft is not

actually owned and operated by the

military, we have in the past used a

‘‘single-flight’’ test for Federal use of

otherwise private aircraft to determine

whether the aircraft is civil or public

and, thus, determine our jurisdiction.

That is, if the Navy contracted for a

civilian aircraft to transport troops,

during the aircraft’s use for that purpose

it might have been deemed a public

aircraft and outside our mandatory

jurisdiction—even though by interagency agreement we might have

investigated an accident. After April 23,

this matter is to be analyzed differently.

Irrespective of the aircraft status as civil

or public, we propose to interpret the

statute as requiring that any such

accident will be investigated by NTSB

unless the aircraft was actually operated

by Armed Forces personnel.

The new definition of public aircraft

is complex, and has generated

considerable discussion and

interpretation concerning the scope and

application of the civil/public aircraft

division for the purposes of FAA safety

regulation. The distinction between

civil and public aircraft (as opposed to

the distinction between military and
Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 50 / Wednesday, March 15, 1995 / Proposed Rules 13949

2 In light of our expanded investigatory role for

public aircraft, the reporting requirement heretofore

included in § 830.20 is superseded by the § 830.5

and § 830.15 rules. Thus, one of our proposals is to

eliminate part 830 subpart E, § 830.20.

3Readers may notice that various provisions

subject to the proposals in this notice require other

changes to reflect current organization at the Safety

Board (e.g., § 800.2) or recent legislative change

(e.g., § 800.3 to reflect provisions of P.L. No. 102–

345, the FAA Civil Penalty Administrative

Assessment Act of 1992). Other rulemakings will

shortly be conducted to update provisions, as

necessary. This proceeding proposes only the

changes needed to implement P.L. No. 103–411.

public aircraft), however, is no longer

critical to our investigation authority—

under the Act we now investigate all

accidents in the U.S. other than those

involving aircraft operated by the

Armed Forces or intelligence agencies.

Although we recognize that the civil/

public distinction remains relevant to us

for statistical and reporting purposes

and in the case of jurisdiction over

accidents abroad, as International Civil

Aviation Authority agreements only

apply to civil aircraft, we see little

purpose at this point in adding

ourselves to this debate.

Finally, those responsible for aircraft

now subject to our broadened

investigation authority should also be

aware that the Board may investigate

occurences beyond those that involve

serious injury or loss of an aircraft. For

example, any flight control system

failure or inflight fire is a reportable

incident. Title 49 of the Code of Federal

Regulations, part 800, identifies all the

instances we investigate and sets forth

rules (at part 830) for notifying us of

what are termed ‘‘accidents or

incidents.’’ 2

Accordingly, 49 CFR parts 800, 830,

and 831 are proposed to be amended as

set forth below. We invite comments on

our interpretations and proposed rule

changes, as well as suggestions for other

possible rule changes needed or useful

to accommodate our expanded

jurisdiction.3

List of Subjects in 49 CFR Part 800

Authority delegations—Government

agencies, Organization and functions—

Government agencies.

49 CFR Part 830

Aviation safety, Reporting and

recordkeeping requirements.

49 CFR Part 831

Aviation safety, Highway safety,

Investigations, Marine safety, Pipeline

safety, Railroad safety.

PART 800—ORGANIZATION AND

FUNCTIONS OF THE BOARD AND

DELEGATIONS OF AUTHORITY

1. The authority citation for part 800

is proposed to be revised to read as

follows:

Authority: Independent Safety Board Act

of 1974, as amended (49 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.);

Federal Aviation Act of 1958, as amended (49

U.S.C. 40101 et seq.).

2. Section 800.3 is proposed to be

amended by revising paragraph (a) to

read as follows:

§ 800.3 Functions.

(a) The primary function of the Safety

Board is to promote safety in

transportation. The Safety Board is

responsible for the investigation,

determination of facts, conditions, and

circumstances and the cause or probable

cause or causes of: all accidents

involving civil aircraft and certain

public aircraft; highway accidents

including railroad grade-crossing

accidents, the investigation of which is

selected in cooperation with the States;

railroad accidents in which there is a

fatality, substantial property damage, or

which involve a passenger train;

pipeline accidents in which there is a

fatality or substantial property damage;

and major marine casualties and marine

accidents involving a public and nonpublic vessel or involving Coast Guard

functions. The Safety Board makes

transportation safety recommendations

to Federal, State, and local agencies and

private organizations to reduce the

likelihood of recurrence of

transportation accidents. It initiates and

conducts safety studies and special

investigations on matters pertaining to

safety in transportation, assesses

techniques and methods of accident

investigation, evaluates the effectiveness

of transportation safety consciousness

and efficacy in preventing accidents of

other Government agencies, and

evaluates the adequacy of safeguards

and procedures concerning the

transportation of hazardous materials.

* * * * *

PART 830—NOTIFICATION AND

REPORTING OF AIRCRAFT

ACCIDENTS OR INCIDENTS AND

OVERDUE AIRCRAFT, AND

PRESERVATION OF AIRCRAFT

WRECKAGE, MAIL, CARGO, AND

RECORDS

4. The authority citation for part 830

is proposed to be revised to read as

follows:

Authority: Federal Aviation Act of 1958, as

amended (49 U.S.C. 40101 et seq.), and the

Independent Safety Board Act of 1974, as

amended (49 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.).

4a. Section 830.1 is proposed to be

amended by revising the introductory

text and paragraphs (a) and (b) to read

as follows:

§ 830.1 Applicability.

This part contains rules pertaining to:

(a) Initial notification and later

reporting of aircraft incidents and

accidents and certain other occurrences

in the operation of aircraft, wherever

they occur, when they involve civil

aircraft of the United States; when they

involve certain public aircraft, as

specified in this Part, wherever they

occur; and when they involve foreign

civil aircraft where the events occur in

the United States, its territories, or its

possessions.

(b) Preservation of aircraft wreckage,

mail, cargo, and records involving all

civil and certain public aircraft

accidents, as specified in this Part, in

the United States and its territories or

possessions.

* * * * *

5. Section 830.2 is proposed to be

amended by revising the definition of

‘‘public aircraft’’ to read as follows:

§ 830.2 Definitions.

* * * * *

Public aircraft means an aircraft used

only for the United States Government,

or an aircraft owned and operated

(except for commercial purposes) or

exclusively leased for at least 90

continuous days by a government other

than the United States Government,

including a State, the District of

Columbia, a territory or possession of

the United States, or a political

subdivision of that government. ‘‘Public

aircraft’’ does not include a governmentowned aircraft transporting property for

commercial purposes and does not

include a government-owned aircraft

transporting passengers other than:

Transporting (for other than commercial

purposes) crewmembers or other

persons aboard the aircraft whose

presence is required to perform, or is

associated with the performance of, a

governmental function such as

firefighting, search and rescue, law

enforcement, aeronautical research, or

biological or geological resource

management; or transporting (for other

than commercial purposes) persons

aboard the aircraft if the aircraft is

operated by the Armed Forces or an

intelligence agency of the United States.

Notwithstanding any limitation relating

to use of the aircraft for commercial

purposes, an aircraft shall be considered

to be a public aircraft without regard to

whether it is operated by a unit of
13950 Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 50 / Wednesday, March 15, 1995 / Proposed Rules

1The Board field offices are listed under U.S.

Government in the telephone directories of the

following cities: Anchorage, AK, Atlanta, GA, West

Chicago, IL, Denver, CO, Arlington, TX, Gardena

(Los Angeles), CA, Miami, FL, Parsippany, NJ

(metropolitan New York, NY), Seattle, WA, and

Washington, DC.

2Forms are available from the Board field offices

(see footnote 1), from Board headquarters in

Washington, DC, and from the Federal Aviation

Administration Flight Standards District Offices.

government on behalf of another unit of

government pursuant to a cost

reimbursement agreement, if the unit of

government on whose behalf the

operation is conducted certifies to the

Administrator of the Federal Aviation

Administration that the operation was

necessary to respond to a significant and

imminent threat to life or property

(including natural resources) and that

no service by a private operator was

reasonably available to meet the threat.

* * * * *

6. Section 830.5 is proposed to be

amended by revising the introductory

text to read as follows:

§ 830.5 Immediate notification.

The operator of any civil aircraft, or

any public aircraft not operated by the

Armed Forces or an intelligence agency

of the United States, or any foreign

aircraft shall immediately, and by the

most expeditious means available,

notify the nearest National

Transportation Safety Board (Board)

field office 1 when:

* * * * *

7. Section 830.15 is proposed to be

amended by revising paragraph (a) to

read as follows:

§ 830.15 Reports and statements to be

filed.

(a) Reports. The operator of a civil,

public (as specified in § 830.5), or

foreign aircraft shall file a report on

Board Form 6120.1⁄2 (OMB No. 3147–

0001) 2 within 10 days after an accident,

or after 7 days if an overdue aircraft is

still missing. A report on an incident for

which immediate notification is

required by § 830.5(a) shall be filed only

as requested by an authorized

representative of the Board.

* * * * *

Subpart E [Removed]

8. Subpart E of part 830 is proposed

to be removed.

PART 831—ACCIDENT/INCIDENT

INVESTIGATION PROCEDURES

9. The authority citation for part 831

is proposed to be revised to read as

follows:

Authority: Federal Aviation Act of 1958, as

amended (49 U.S.C. 40101 et seq.), and the

Independent Safety Board Act of 1974, as

amended (49 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.).

10. Section 831.2 is proposed to be

amended by revising paragraph (a)(1) to

read as follows:

§ 831.2 Responsibility of Board.

(a) Aviation. (1) The Board is

responsible for the organization,

conduct and control of all accident

investigations within the United States,

its territories and possessions, where the

accident involves civil aircraft and

certain public aircraft (as specified in

§ 830.5 of this chapter), including an

accident investigation involving civil or

public aircraft on the one hand and an

Armed Forces or intelligence agency

aircraft on the other hand. It is also

responsible for investigating accidents

that occur outside the United States,

and which involve civil aircraft and

certain public aircraft, when the

accident is not in the territory of another

state (i.e., in international waters).

* * * * *

11. Section 831.9 is proposed to be

amended to revise paragraph (b) to read

as follows:

§ 831.9 Authority of Board

Representatives.

* * * * *

(b) Aviation. Any employee of the

Board, upon presenting appropriate

credentials, is authorized to examine

and test to the extent necessary any civil

or public aircraft, aircraft engine,

propeller, appliance, or property aboard

such aircraft involved in an accident in

air commerce.

* * * * *

Issued in Washington, D.C. on this 8th day

of March, 1995.

Jim Hall,

Chairman.

[FR Doc. 95–6216 Filed 3–14–95; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 7533–01–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

50 CFR Part 17

Endangered and Threatened Wildlife

and Plants: 90-Day Finding for a

Petition to List the Preble’s Meadow

Jumping Mouse as Threatened or

Endangered

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service,

Interior.

ACTION: Notice of 90-day petition

finding.

SUMMARY: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service (Service) announces a 90-day

finding for a petition to list the Preble’s

meadow jumping mouse (Zapus

hudsonius preblei) under the

Endangered Species Act of 1973, as

amended. The Service finds that there is

substantial information to indicate that

listing the species may be warranted.

DATES: The finding announced in this

document was approved on February

27, 1994. To be considered in the 12-

month finding for this petition,

information and comments should be

submitted to the Service by May 15,

1995.

ADDRESSES: Information, questions, or

comments concerning this petition

finding may be sent to the Field

Supervisor, U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service, 730 Simms Street, Room 290,

Golden, Colorado 80401. The petition,

finding, supporting data, and comments

are available for public inspection by

appointment during normal business

hours at the above office.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

LeRoy W. Carlson (see ADDRESSES) (303/

231–5280).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

Section 4(b)(3)(A) of the Endangered

Species Act (Act) of 1973, as amended

(16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), requires that the

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service)

make a finding on whether a petition to

list, delist, or reclassify a species

presents substantial scientific or

commercial information to demonstrate

that the petitioned action may be

warranted. To the maximum extent

practicable, this finding is to be made

within 90 days of the receipt of the

petition, and a notice regarding the

finding is to be published promptly in

the Federal Register. If the finding is

that substantial information was

presented, the Service also is required to

commence a review of the status of the

involved species if one has not already

been initiated by the Service. The

Service initiated a status review for

Preble’s meadow jumping mouse (Zapus

hudsonius preblei) when it categorized

the species as a category 2 candidate

species in the 1985 Animal Notice of

Review (50 FR 37958). This notice

meets the requirement for the 90-day

finding made earlier on the petition as

discussed below.

A petition dated August 9, 1994, was

received by the Service from the

Biodiversity Legal Foundation on

August 16, 1994. The petition requests

the Service to list Preble’s meadow

jumping mouse as endangered or

threatened throughout its range and to

designate critical habitat within a