2016-00413. Petition for Exemption; Summary of Petition Received; Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway

AGENCY:

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

This notice contains a summary of a petition seeking relief from specified requirements of title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The purpose of this notice is to improve the public's awareness of, and participation in, the FAA's exemption process. Neither publication of this notice nor the inclusion or omission of information in the summary is intended to affect the legal status of the petition or its final disposition.

DATES:

Comments on this petition must identify the petition docket number and must be received on or before February 1, 2016.

ADDRESSES:

Send comments identified by docket number FAA-2015-7512 using any of the following methods:

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow the online instructions for sending your comments electronically.
• Mail: Send comments to Docket Operations, M-30; U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Room W12-140, West Building Ground Floor, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
• Hand Delivery or Courier: Take comments to Docket Operations in Room W12-140 of the West Building Ground Floor at 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
• Fax: Fax comments to Docket Operations at 202-493-2251.

Privacy: In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(c), DOT solicits comments from the public to better inform its rulemaking process. DOT posts these comments, without edit, including any personal information the commenter provides, to http://www.regulations.gov, as described in the system of records notice (DOT/ALL-14 FDMS), which can be reviewed at http://www.dot.gov/​privacy.

Docket: Background documents or comments received may be read at http://www.regulations.gov at any time. Follow the online instructions for accessing the docket or go to the Docket Operations in Room W12-140 of the West Building Ground Floor at 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

For technical questions concerning this action, contact Nia Daniels, (202-267-7626), 800 Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20591.

This notice is published pursuant to 14 CFR 11.85.

Issued in Washington, DC, on January 7, 2016.

Lirio Liu,

Director, Office of Rulemaking.

Petition for Exemption

Docket No.: FAA-2015-7512.

Petitioner: Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.

Section(s) of 14 CFR Affected: 91.113(b).

Description of Relief Sought: Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) seeks relief from the requirements of 14 CFR § 91.113(b) Right-of-way rules: Except water operations, while conducting small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operations as part of the Pathfinder Focus Area ^[1] for beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) in rural/isolated areas. The UAS research under the Pathfinder program is conducted in partnership with the FAA to explore the next steps in unmanned aircraft operations beyond the type proposed in the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), for Operation and Certification of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems. BNSF proposes to utilize technology developed by leading experts to provide at least the same level of situational awareness as that of a pilot flying under visual flight rules (VFR).

Footnotes

1.  https://www.faa.gov/​uas/​legislative_​programs/​pathfinders/​.