Form Appendix A to Part Appendix A to Part Disability Complaint Reporting Form

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 249 / Wednesday, December 29, 2004 / Rules and Regulations
Related Information
(t) CAA airworthiness directive G–2004–
0027, dated November 19, 2004, also
addresses the subject of this AD.
Issued in Burlington, Massachusetts, on
December 15, 2004.
Francis A. Favara,
Acting Manager, Engine and Propeller
Directorate, Aircraft Certification Service.
[FR Doc. 04–28144 Filed 12–28–04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–13–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Office of the Secretary
14 CFR Part 382
[OST Docket No. 2003–11473]
RIN 2105–ADO4

Reporting Requirements for DisabilityRelated Complaints
Office of the Secretary,
Department of Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Guidance on final rule and
notice of information collection
approval.
AGENCY:

SUMMARY: A July 8, 2003, final rule (68
FR 40488) requires, among other things,
that certain certificated U.S. air carriers
and foreign air carriers record disabilityrelated complaints and submit a
summary report of those complaints
annually to the Department.
This document announces the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB)
approval of this information collection
request (ICR) OMB No. 2105–0551,
‘‘Reporting Requirements for DisabilityRelated Complaints,’’ provides
information on how covered carriers can
submit a report summarizing the
disability-related complaints that they
receive during the prior calendar year to
the Department through the World Wide

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Web, and addresses frequently asked
questions about the applicability of the
rule.
DATES: The final rule published July 8,
2003 (68 FR 40488) was effective August
7, 2003. The expiration date for the ICR
is April 30, 2007.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Damon P. Whitehead or Blane A.
Workie, Office of the General Counsel,
400 7th Street, SW., Room 4116,
Washington, DC 20590, (202) 366–9342
(voice), (202) 366–7152 (Fax) or
[email protected] or
[email protected] (E-mail).
Arrangements to obtain the notice in an
alternative format may be made by
contacting the above-named
individuals.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
On July 8, 2003, the Office of the
Secretary published a final rule adding
§ 382.70 to 14 CFR Part 382, the
Department’s rule implementing the Air
Carrier Access Act. Section 382.70
requires most certificated U.S. air
carriers and foreign air carriers
operating to and from the U.S. that
conduct passenger-carrying service to
do the following: (1) Record and
categorize complaints that they receive
alleging inadequate accessibility for the
disabled or discrimination on the basis
of disability according to the type of
disability and nature of complaint; (2)
prepare an annual summary report of
the number of such complaints; (3)
submit the report to the Department’s
Aviation Consumer Protection Division
through the World Wide Web unless the
carrier can demonstrate that it would
suffer undue hardship if it were not
permitted to submit the data via paper
copies, computer disks, or e-mail; and
(4) retain copies of the correspondence
and records of action taken on the

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disability-related complaints for three
years. 68 FR 40488. The effective date
of this final rule was August 7, 2003. At
that time, the Department had not
obtained an OMB control number for its
information collection request and had
not established procedures for covered
carriers to follow when submitting
annual reports to the Department
through the World Wide Web.
Approval of Information Collection
Request
OMB regulations implementing
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995 require that interested
members of the public and affected
agencies have an opportunity to
comment on information collection and
recordkeeping activities and specify that
no person is required to respond to an
information collection unless it displays
a valid OMB control number. In
accordance with the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995, OST has
received OMB approval of the following
ICR:
OMB Control Number: 2105–0551.
Title: Reporting Requirements for
Disability-Related Complaints.
This information collection approval,
which was granted by OMB on April 23,
2004, expires on April 30, 2007.
Because OMB approved the information
collection after publication of the July 8,
2003, final rule, we are now announcing
the OMB approval and incorporating
notice of this approval into the form that
carriers will use through the World
Wide Web to submit their annual report
summarizing the disability-related
complaints that they received during the
prior calendar year. A copy of the form
is included below and this notice will
be sent to affected carriers for whom we
have accurate contact information.
BILLING CODE 4910–62–P

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Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 249 / Wednesday, December 29, 2004 / Rules and Regulations

Procedures For Submission of Report
Through the World Wide Web
DOT has established a Web site at
http://382reporting.ost.dot.gov to enable
covered carriers to submit from any
Internet-connected computer anywhere
in the world the required annual report
summarizing the disability-related
complaints that they received during the
prior calendar year using the form
specified in Appendix A of Part 382.
Carriers will need to register on the Web
site before they can gain access and
complete the disability-related
complaint form online. To register,
carriers simply fill in and submit the
required registration information:
Carrier name; carrier class (foreign or
U.S.); carrier address; and carrier
representative name, title, and contact
information. Each carrier representative
will be assigned a unique user name and
password after DOT has verified the
authenticity of the registered carrier and
representative, which may take a day or
two. This step is necessary to ensure
that only authorized users can submit
information and view sensitive data. We
encourage each covered carrier to
register with the Web site as soon as
possible so that the carrier
representative can receive a user name
and password well in advance of
January 25, 2005, the date by which
carriers must submit to the Department
of Transportation the report covering
disability-related complaints received
during calendar year 2004.
Once a carrier representative receives
a user name and password from DOT,
that representative will be able to access
and complete the disability-related
complaint form online, modify his/her
contact information and change his/her
user name and/or password. To change
a user name or password, the
representative would simply login with
the given user name and password and
then click on the ‘‘Change Password’’
link on the left side of the menu.
Similarly, a carrier representative could
modify his/her contact information by
clicking on ‘‘Change Contact
Information.’’ Clicking on the ‘‘Add
Report to Current Year’’ will take the
carrier representative to a screen
containing data fields that need to be
completed on the DOT disability
complaint reporting form. All the fields
in the form must be completed, as
failure to provide a number in any field
would prevent the representative from
continuing to the next screen. Carriers
are to enter a numeral ‘‘0’’ where there
are no complaints in a given category.
When the carrier representative finishes
inputting numbers in all the fields in
the form, he/she should then read and

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acknowledge the legal certification
statement prior to clicking the ‘‘Submit’’
button. After submission, the annual
report will be forwarded to DOT and the
carrier representative will not be able to
make any changes to the report through
the Internet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Since the final rule on reporting
requirements for disability-related
complaints was published on July 8,
2003, a number of carrier
representatives have contacted the
Department of Transportation to ask for
clarification or interpretation regarding
the text of § 382.70. These clarifications
and interpretations have been
disseminated primarily through
informal conversations or e-mails
between DOT staff and individual
carrier representatives. The Department
believes that the guidance provided to
these carrier representatives may also be
of interest to other members of the
public. To ensure this guidance will be
more accessible to the public and
§ 382.70 will be more readily
understandable, we are including in this
notice frequently asked questions and
DOT responses regarding § 382.70.
1. Question: Did § 382.70 become
effective on August 7, 2003? If so, what
action(s) were covered carriers required
to take beginning on that date?
Answer: Yes, § 382.70 became
effective on August 7, 2003. See 68 FR
40488. Beginning on that date, covered
carriers were required to record and
categorize disability-related complaints
that they receive according to the type
of disability and nature of complaint.
Covered foreign air carriers were also
required to retain for three years copies
of the correspondence and records of
action taken on the disability-related
complaints. Prior to August 7, 2003, 14
CFR 249.20 of the Department’s
regulations already required certificated
U.S. air carriers to retain
correspondence and records of action
taken for all consumer complaints for
three years.
The first report, which must cover
complaints received during calendar
year 2004, must be submitted to the
Department by January 25, 2005. There
was no requirement to submit a report
in 2004 for complaints received during
any portion of calendar year 2003, and
carriers are not to include complaints
received during 2003 in the report that
they file in January 2005.
2. Question: Can one piece of
correspondence (e.g., a letter, e-mail
message) contain more than one
disability-related complaint? If so, must
each separate complaint be categorized
and reported?

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Answer: Yes, a single piece of
correspondence might express more
than one complaint. Each disabilityrelated problem that an individual
complains about in writing must be
categorized and reported. For example,
if a passenger in a wheelchair sends in
a letter stating that he/she did not
receive connecting assistance, and after
his/her final flight he/she discovered
that his/her wheelchair was damaged,
that is two complaints.
3. Question: Is a carrier required to
report disability-related complaints that
it receives from government agencies
(e.g. DOT)?
Answer: Yes, each carrier is required
to record, categorize, and report
disability-related complaints forwarded
by a governmental agency with respect
to difficulties encountered in
connection with service the carrier
provides. However, if a carrier receives
a disability-related complaint from an
agency and the carrier has already
recorded, categorized, and reported that
complaint based on prior
correspondence received from, or
submitted on behalf of, the involved
individual with a disability then the
carrier is not required to count the same
complaint again (i.e. there is to be no
double counting).
4. Question: Are the types of
complaints covered by the final rule
limited to complaints deemed by the
carrier to be reasonable, complaints that
the carrier is not able to resolve
satisfactorily or complaints that relate to
service required under Part 382?
Answer: The types of complaints
required to be reported are not limited
to those disability complaints that the
carrier deems to be valid or to constitute
a potential violation of Part 382. Carriers
are required to report on all complaints
that they receive alleging discrimination
on the basis of disability or failure to
accommodate a disability, even if the
carrier believes that the complaint is
unreasonable or invalid, there was a
rational explanation for what happened,
the carrier arrived at a subsequent
resolution with the passenger that the
passenger said was satisfactory, or the
incident does not constitute a violation
of Part 382.
5. Question: Are all complaints filed
by passengers with disabilities to be
reported, even if a problem had nothing
to do with the disability?
Answer: No, only disability-related
complaints are to be reported. For
example, if a passenger who uses a
wheelchair complains that his/her flight
operated two hours late, but he/she
expresses no dissatisfaction with the
disability-related accommodations that
he/she received, that complaint is not to

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Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 249 / Wednesday, December 29, 2004 / Rules and Regulations
be reported as a disability-related
complaint.
6. Question: Is the carrier required to
report all disability-related complaints
regardless of the passenger’s nationality
and/or citizenship?
Answer: Yes, a carrier is required to
report disability-related complaints
irrespective of the passenger’s
nationality and/or citizenship. As
indicated in the rule, a disability-related
complaint means a specific written
expression of dissatisfaction received
from, or submitted on behalf of, an
individual with a disability concerning
a difficulty associated with the person’s
disability, which the person
experienced when using or attempting
to use a U.S. or foreign air carrier’s
services. ‘‘Individual with a disability’’
is defined in § 382.5. These definitions
are not limited in any manner by the
nationality and/or citizenship of the
individual with a disability.
7. Question: If a passenger has more
than one disability, how should a carrier
record and categorize the passenger’s
disabilities?
Answer: Carriers should settle on the
primary disability that needed to be
accommodated for each incident. For
instance, consider the example provided
in the notice of proposed rulemaking
that led to § 382.70 of Jane, who is deaf
and a wheelchair user. Jane sends a
letter to ABC Airlines alleging that there
was a failure to provide her with ground
personnel to assist in pushing the
wheelchair at three of the airports
through which she traveled and she
missed her flight at the fourth airport
because the gate agent did not let her
know when she should board the
aircraft. In this hypothetical, the carrier
should determine that the primary
disability that needed to be
accommodated for three of the incidents
(failure to provide personnel to assist in
pushing the wheelchair at three
airports) is Jane’s mobility impairment,
and that the primary disability that
needed to be accommodated for the
other incident (failure to inform Jane
about boarding for her flight) is Jane’s
deafness. It is also worth noting that the
carrier should count these disabilityrelated problems as four separate
incidents (i.e. four complaints).
8. Question: In a flight involving a
public charter where there are two
entities involved (the charter operator
and the airline) and in a wet lease
situation where two airlines are
involved, who is responsible for
recording disability-related complaint
data and submitting it to the Department
in an annual report?
Answer: Section 382.70 applies to
certificated U.S. carriers and foreign air

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carriers operating to, from, and in the
United States, conducting passenger
operations with at least one aircraft
having a designed seating capacity of
more than 60 passengers. In a flight
involving a public charter, it is the
airline that operates the flight and not
the charter operator (the entity that sells
individual seats on charter flights and
assumes financial risk) that is
responsible for recording and
submitting disability-related complaint
data. In a wet lease situation, the lessee
(the carrier receiving the aircraft and
crew and under whose name the flight
is offered) and not the lessor (the carrier
providing the aircraft and crew) must
report disability-related complaints.
9. Question: If code-share partners
receive copies of the same complaint,
which carrier is required to report it?
Answer: The operating airline is
required to report disability-related
complaints involving the flight itself
and services provided on that flight. The
ticketing airline is required to report all
other complaints, particularly
complaints about the reservation
system. In situations where there is
disagreement between code-share
partners as to which carrier is
responsible for reporting a particular
complaint and only one code-share
partner receives the complaint, the
carrier that receives the complaint must
report it. If both the ticketing and
operating carrier receive copies of the
same complaint and there is no
agreement between the two as to which
one is ultimately responsible for
reporting the complaint, then both
carriers must report the complaint.
10. Question: Does § 382.70 apply to
U.S. and foreign carrier code-share
segments operated between two nonU.S. points?
Answer: Section 382.70 does not
apply to foreign carriers operating
aircraft between two foreign points even
if the operation in question is a codeshare flight with a U.S. air carrier.
Foreign air carriers are covered by this
section only with respect to disabilityrelated complaints associated with any
nonstop flight segment originating or
terminating in the United States.
However, U.S. carriers must report all
written disability-related complaints if
they operate the flight, even if the flight
is between two foreign points.
11. Question: What does DOT mean
by a flight segment originating or
terminating in the United States?
Answer: By flight segment originating
or terminating in the United States, the
Department is referring to a nonstop
flight operating to or from the United
States where the last point of departure
or the first point of arrival is in the

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United States. For example, suppose a
foreign air carrier operates nonstop
service between New York and London.
That flight segment would be covered
by § 382.70 because the last point of
departure or first point of arrival (i.e.
New York) is in the United States. On
the other hand, suppose a foreign carrier
operates service from Addis Ababa to
London to New York. In such a
circumstance, the flight segment from
Addis Ababa to London would not be
covered by § 382.70, as neither the last
point of departure (i.e. Addis Ababa)
nor the first point of arrival (i.e.
London) is in the United States; but the
flight segment from London to New
York would be covered by § 382.70 as
the first point of arrival of that flight
segment (i.e. New York) is in the United
States.
12. Question: Is the scope of the
reporting requirements for disabilityrelated complaints (§ 382.70) the same
as the scope of the notice of proposed
rulemaking (NPRM) issued on
November 4, 2004 (69 FR 64364)
addressing broad coverage of foreign air
carriers under the Air Carrier Access
Act?
Answer: No, the scope of the reporting
requirements for disability-related
complaints in § 382.70 is narrower than
that proposed in the November 4 NPRM
for other sections of 14 CFR Part 382.
Foreign air carriers are covered by
§ 382.70 only with respect to disabilityrelated complaints associated with any
nonstop flight segment originating or
terminating in the United States. The
November 4 NPRM proposes to cover
foreign air carriers with respect to
flights that begin or end at a U.S.
airport. In other words, the November 4
NPRM does not limit coverage to
nonstop flight segments originating or
terminating in the United States but
proposes to cover all flights that involve
a continuous journey beginning or
ending at a U.S. airport using the same
aircraft and/or flight number.
13. Question: Are carriers required to
make their records available to DOT on
request?
Answer: Yes, carriers must retain and
make available to Department of
Transportation officials at their request
correspondence and records of action
taken on all disability-related
complaints for three years after receipt
of the complaint or creation of the
record of action taken.

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Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 249 / Wednesday, December 29, 2004 / Rules and Regulations

Issued this 22nd day of December, 2004, at
Washington DC.
Jeffrey A. Rosen,
General Counsel, U.S. Department of
Transportation.
[FR Doc. 04–28543 Filed 12–27–04; 11:54
am]
BILLING CODE 4910–62–P

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Bureau of Industry and Security
15 CFR Parts 738, 740, 742, 745 and
774
[Docket No. 041221359–4359–01]
RIN 0694–AD25

Implementation of the Understandings
Reached at the June 2004 Australia
Group (AG) Plenary Meeting and
Through a Subsequent AG
Intersessional Decision; Clarifications
to the Scope of ECCNs 1A004, 1A995,
and 2B351; Corrections to Country
Group D and ECCNs 1C355, 1C395,
and 1C995; Additions to the List of
States Parties to the Chemical
Weapons Convention
Bureau of Industry and
Security, Commerce.
ACTION: Final rule.
AGENCY:

SUMMARY: The Bureau of Industry and
Security (BIS) is publishing this final
rule to amend the Export
Administration Regulations (EAR) to
implement the understandings reached
at the June 2004 plenary meeting of the
Australia Group (AG) and through a
subsequent AG intersessional decision.
Specifically, this final rule amends the
EAR by adding three new bacteria and
two new viruses to the list of AGcontrolled plant pathogens described on
the Commerce Control List (CCL). In
addition, this rule amends the EAR to
indicate that certain medical products
identified on the CCL, which contain
AG-controlled conotoxins, no longer
require a license for chemical/biological
(CB) reasons. The AG-related licensing
policies in the EAR are amended by
adding a new criterion to the list of
factors that BIS will consider when
determining what action should be
taken on license applications for AGlisted items. This rule also amends the
EAR to reflect the addition of five new
member countries to the Australia
Group. This rule corrects an inadvertent
omission from a previous AG plenary
rule (published on May 31, 2002) by
removing Bulgaria from the EAR list of
countries of concern for chemical and
biological reasons. This rule also

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amends the EAR to implement an AG
intersessional decision, which was
adopted after the June 2004 AG plenary
meeting, by adding nine precursor
chemicals to the list of AG-controlled
precursor chemicals described on the
CCL.
In addition to the amendments to the
EAR resulting from the AG
understandings described above, this
rule amends the EAR by revising a CCL
entry containing protective and
detection equipment identified on the
Wassenaar Arrangement dual-use list to
indicate that chemical/biological (CB)
controls in the EAR apply to certain
chemical detection systems and
dedicated detectors therefor, described
in that entry, because such systems and
detectors also are included on the AG
‘‘Control List of Dual-Use Chemical
Manufacturing Facilities and Equipment
and Related Technology.’’ A related AG
entry on the CCL is revised to indicate
that it does not control any of the
chemical detection systems described in
the Wassenaar list entry, thereby
eliminating any appearance of an
overlap between the two CCL entries.
This rule also amends three CCL
entries, which control certain precursor
chemicals and/or mixtures and test kits
containing such chemicals, to restore
the text of the license requirements
notes that were inadvertently omitted
from these ECCNs in a rule that BIS
published on July 30, 2004.
Finally, this rule updates the list of
countries that currently are States
Parties to the Chemical Weapons
Convention (CWC) by adding seven
countries that recently became States
Parties.
This rule is effective December
29, 2004.

DATES:

Written comments should
be addressed to Willard Fisher,
Regulatory Policy Division, Office of
Exporter Services, Bureau of Industry
and Security, Room 2705, 14th Street
and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.,
Washington, DC 20230, e-mailed to
[email protected], or faxed to (202)
482–3355.

ADDRESSES:

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Douglas Brown, Office of
Nonproliferation Controls and Treaty
Compliance, Bureau of Industry and
Security, telephone: (202) 482–7900.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

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Background
A. Revisions to the EAR Based on
Understandings Reached at the June
2004 Plenary Meeting of the Australia
Group and Through a Subsequent AG
Intersessional Decision
The Bureau of Industry and Security
(BIS) is amending the Export
Administration Regulations (EAR) to
implement the understandings reached
at, and subsequent to, the annual
plenary meeting of the Australia Group
(AG) that was held in Paris on June 7–
10, 2004. The Australia Group is a
multilateral forum, consisting of 38
participating countries, that maintains
export controls on a list of chemicals,
biological agents, and related equipment
and technology that could be used in a
chemical or biological weapons
program. The AG periodically reviews
items on its control list to enhance the
effectiveness of participating
governments’ national controls and to
achieve greater harmonization among
these controls.
The understandings reached at the
June 2004 plenary meeting included a
decision to add five pathogens to the AG
‘‘List of Plant Pathogens for Export
Controls.’’ This final rule implements
these changes by amending the EAR to
add three bacteria and two viruses to the
AG list of plant pathogens described in
Export Control Classification Number
(ECCN) 1C354 on the Commerce Control
List (CCL) (Supplement No. 1 to Part
774 of the EAR).
Specifically, this rule adds the
following three bacteria to the AG-listed
plant pathogens described in ECCN
1C354.a on the CCL: Xanthomonas
oryzae pv. oryzae (syn. Pseudomonas
campestris pv. oryzae), Clavibacter
michiganensis subspecies sepedonicus
(syn. Corynebacterium michiganensis
subspecies sepedonicum or
Corynebacterium sepedonicum), and
Ralstonia solanacearum Races 2 and 3
(syn. Pseudomonas solanacearum Races
2 and 3 or Burkholderia solanacearum
Races 2 and 3). In addition, this rule
amends ECCN 1C354 by adding a new
1C354.c that controls the following two
viruses: Potato Andean latent tymovirus
and Potato spindle tuber viroid. These
AG-listed bacteria and viruses, along
with all other items controlled by ECCN
1C354, require a license for export or
reexport to all destinations, worldwide.
Another understanding reached at the
June 2004 AG plenary meeting was the
removal of certain medical products
containing conotoxins from the AG list
of biological agents (i.e., human and
zoonotic pathogens and toxins). This
rule amends the EAR to implement this
understanding by revising ECCN

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