To keep up with the FAA, I subscribe to the news feeds for most of its branches. The other day, the Flight Standards Service (AFS) sent me notice of a draft policy document, and its subject, updated air cargo definitions and abbreviations caught my attention. In aviation, abbreviations and acronyms seem to breed exponentially, so keeping up is worth my time. I found a subject way more interesting than I expected.
The changed definition and abbreviations support the air safety initiative on air cargo operations under Part 91K. 121. 125. 135. and Letter of Deviation Authority (LODA). Addressing the background before introducing the changes, the notices said, ” The FAA’s Cargo Focus Team (CFT), created following an aircraft accident in Bagram, Afghanistan, determined that OpSpecs A196, Air Cargo Operations, and A396, Special Cargo Operations, provide the best process for management of cargo operations.”
What, I wondered, is the Cargo Focus Team? A search of the FAA website revealed no page dedicated to the CFT. The closest I got was a list of responsibilities of AFS-330, the FAA’s Air Carrier Maintenance Branch. The CFT was well down on the long list that included corrosion prevention and control programs; oversight of safety and education plans about aging aircraft; and developing and standardizing regs and national guidance on maintenance for Part 91K, 119, 121, 125, 135, and 136.
With that lead unsatisfying my curiosity, I started over with the accident, mentioned in the note, that led to the accident at Bagram Air Base. In the grand scheme of aviation excitement, air cargo may often seem mundane, except maybe when a Boeing 747-400 freighter is loaded with five mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles that, all together, weigh 78 tons and the aft-most 12-ton MRAP ATV breaks free of its tie downs on takeoff and damages the hydraulic systems that control the 747’s horizontal stabilizers.
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