[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 772 Introduced in House (IH)]
114th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 772
To direct the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to
issue regulations to improve flight recorder and aircraft crash
location requirements on certain commercial passenger aircraft in
accordance with new International Civil Aviation Organization flight
recorder standards.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 5, 2015
Mr. Duncan of Tennessee (for himself and Mr. Price of North Carolina)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To direct the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to
issue regulations to improve flight recorder and aircraft crash
location requirements on certain commercial passenger aircraft in
accordance with new International Civil Aviation Organization flight
recorder standards.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Safe Aviation and Flight Enhancement
Act of 2015''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) In 2012 the International Civil Aviation Organization
(referred to in this Act as ``ICAO'') adopted a standard
requiring all new aircraft with a maximum certificated take-off
mass over 15,000 kilograms for which a type certificate is
issued on or after 1 January, 2016, and which are required to
be equipped with both a digital flight recorder (referred to in
this Act as ``FDR''), and a cockpit voice recorder (referred to
in this Act as ``CVR''), to be equipped with 2 combination FDR/
CVR recorder systems.
(2) It is in the public's best interest that the second
combination FDR/CVR system installed under the new ICAO
standard uses a deployable combination FDR/CVR/Emergency
Locator Transmitter (referred to in this Act as ``ELT'') system
to: maximize survivability; prevent the need for underwater
recovery of both black boxes in water incidents; improve timely
location of the aircraft, accident site and survivors; and to
ensure rapid recovery of the FDR/CVR data for timely safety and
security analysis in all crash scenarios.
(3) Deployable recorder systems combine an FDR, a CVR, and
ELT into one crash hardened, survivable ``black box'', which
releases from the aircraft upon crash impact with land, water,
and in the event of in-air explosion, enabling it to avoid the
crash impact site and float indefinitely on water to avoid
time-consuming and costly underwater search efforts.
(4) Deployable FDR/CVR/ELT black boxes send a distress
alert tracking signal to the free, global constellation of
Search and Rescue (SAR) satellite transponders known as COSPAS-
SARSAT; providing the position of the aircraft at point of
impact, aircraft tail number, country of origin, and location
of the deployable FDR/CVR/ELT black box for quick recovery and
analysis.
(5) Recent commercial aviation accidents exemplify a
growing trend in difficult and costly underwater aircraft CVR/
FDR location and recovery efforts:
(A) March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370,
disappeared with 239 passengers and crew. International
search and recovery efforts for the aircraft and black
boxes are ongoing involving 29 nations and hundreds of
millions of dollars in resources, estimated to result
in the most expensive search and recovery mission in
aviation history.
(B) June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447, crashed
into the Atlantic Ocean with 216 passengers and 12 crew
members. Despite locating aircraft wreckage within 5
days, it still took nearly two years and an estimated
cost of over $160,000,000 to recover the FDR and CVR
from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean at a depth of
12,000 feet.
(C) June 30, 2009, Yemenia Airlines IY626, crashed
off of the coast of Comoros, with 152 passengers and
aircrew. The sole survivor, a 12-year-old girl, was
found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean
for thirteen hours. Her accounts estimated 30 to 40
passengers survived the crash but succumbed to
hypothermia due to the delay in locating the downed
aircraft. The FDR and CVR were not recovered until
nearly two months later, at a depth of 3,900 feet.
(D) January 1, 2007, Adam Air Flight 574, carrying
102 passengers and aircrew crashed off the coast of
Indonesia. The FDR and CVR were located nearly one
month later, but could not be recovered until seven
months later on due to the difficulty of the underwater
environment. The FDR and CVR were found at a depth of
6,600 feet and 4,600 feet apart.
(6) Countries with extensive search and rescue
capabilities, such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark,
Japan, Norway, United Kingdom, and the United States, have
equipped military platforms, including commercial equivalent
aircraft with automatic deployable black box technology.
(7) Following the crash of Air France Flight 447, the
French Bureau d'Enqueetes et d'Analyses (BEA) led the
International Flight Data Recovery Working Group, consisting of
over 100 safety experts, that scored deployable FDR/CVR/ELT
systems the highest among all evaluated technologies to improve
aircraft and black box localization and recovery.
(8) There are no recurring service/data fees associated
with the use of deployable FDR/CVR/ELT systems. The COSPAS-
SARSAT satellites, network and supporting infrastructure that
receives the alert signal from the deployable FDR/CVR/ELT with
the aircraft crash location and black box location is a free,
global safety service managed by governments around the world.
(9) In accordance with Public Law 110-53, (Implementing
Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007), the
Transportation Security Administration conducted a pilot
program that successfully tested in concept, the ability of
automatic deployable recorder systems to improve rapid access
to flight data following commercial aviation crashes, while
also providing localization of downed aircraft and potential
survivors.
SEC. 3. REGULATIONS REQUIRING DEPLOYABLE RECORDERS AND OTHER PURPOSES.
(a) Regulations.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment
of this Act, the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration
shall issue regulations that require all commercial passenger aircraft
defined under this Act be equipped with a deployable recorder system as
the second combination FDR/CVR recorder system installed under
International Civil Aviation Organization Annex 6, Part I, Amendment
35--6.3.4.5.2 Combination Recorders.
(b) Schedule for Compliance.--The regulations under subsection (a)
shall require the installation of the automatic deployable recorder
system required under this section on commercial aircraft that are
ordered by an air carrier on or after January 1, 2017.
(c) Definitions.--In this Act, the following definitions apply:
(1) Commercial aircraft.--The term ``commercial passenger
aircraft'' means a jet aircraft with a maximum certificated
take-off mass over 15,000 kilograms, and which are required to
be equipped with 2 combination FDR/CVR recorder systems in
accordance with ICAO Annex 6, Part I, Amendment 6.3.4.5.2.
(2) Deployable recorder system.--The term ``deployable
recorder system'' means a flight data recorder, cockpit voice
recorder, and emergency locator transmitter housed in one crash
protected, floatable unit that meets the performance
specifications for a Deployable Recorder system under United
States Federal Aviation Administration Technical Standard Order
123c (CVR), Technical Standard Order 124c (FDR), and Minimum
Operational Performance Specifications for Deployable Recorders
under EUROCAE ED-112A and all subsequent updates to such
requirements.
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