FAA

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sets standards for airlines and air traffic control. Pilots submit unusual observations to its regional offices, which sometimes consult military or intelligence channels.¹²³⁴⁵

Created by the 1958 Federal Aviation Act, the agency replaced the Civil Aeronautics Authority and entered the newly formed Department of Transportation in 1967, gaining cabinet-level visibility for civil aviation oversight.¹²

  Organizational Structure

The administrator reports to the Secretary of Transportation and directs five major lines of business: the Air Traffic Organization responsible for the National Airspace System⁶, the Aviation Safety Office, the Office of Airports, the Office of Commercial Space Transportation, and the Office of Security and Hazardous Materials Safety. More than 45 000 employees support these missions through nine regional offices and three consolidated service centers.

  Anomalous Phenomena Reporting Channels

Order JO 7110.65 assigns tower and center personnel a limited role when witnesses report unidentified objects — controllers advise callers to submit information to a civilian collection center and alert law enforcement only if safety is threatened.⁷ In 2021 the agency confirmed that radar logs and pilot tapes are forwarded to the Department of Defense UAP Task Force whenever corroborating data exist.⁸

  Safety Data Programs

The agency maintains three open datasets for hazard analysis.

  Interagency Collaboration

Memoranda of agreement with NASA, the Department of Defense, and intelligence agencies guide data transfer on unidentified phenomena, while the Government Accountability Office audits these arrangements to verify transparency and record-keeping.⁴

  Key Facilities

Headquarters occupies the Orville Wright building at 800 Independence Avenue SW, Washington DC. The Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Warrenton, Virginia orchestrates nationwide flow control, and the William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City tests navigation, surveillance, and counter-UAS technologies.

  Notable Incidents

In February 2021 the crew of American Airlines 2292 reported a fast-moving cylindrical object above New Mexico; controllers found no radar target yet preserved the audio for defense analysts.⁸ Earlier high-visibility cases include the 2006 Chicago O'Hare Gate C17 disc sighting and numerous near-misses cataloged in ASRS.

  Strategic Challenges

Current priorities include blending small unmanned aircraft into controlled airspace, certifying advanced air mobility vehicles, safeguarding spectrum for NextGen surveillance, and recruiting replacements as veteran controllers retire.

  References

1. faa.gov ↩ ↩²

2. transportation.gov ↩ ↩²

3. faa.gov ↩

4. gao.gov ↩ ↩²

5. en.wikipedia.org ↩

6. faa.gov ↩

7. faa.gov ↩

8. thedebrief.org ↩ ↩²

9. asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↩

10. asias.faa.gov ↩

11. faa.gov ↩