Safety is Not for Sale Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 5401 To require aircraft manufacturers to offer or provide non-required safety enhancing equipment of an aircraft without additional charge to an air carrier, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DECEMBER 11, 2019 Mr. COHEN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure A BILL To require aircraft manufacturers to offer or provide non- required safety enhancing equipment of an aircraft with- out additional charge to an air carrier, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safety is Not for Sale 4 Act of 2019’’. 5 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6 In this Act: 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:48 Dec 16, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5401.IH H5401 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 5401 IH (1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis- 1 trator’’ means the Administrator of the Federal 2 Aviation Administration. 3 (2) AIR CARRIER.—The term ‘‘air carrier’’ has 4 the meaning given that term in section 40102 of 5 title 49, United States Code. 6 (3) ANGLE OF ATTACK INDICATOR.—The term 7 ‘‘angle of attack indicator’’ means an instrument 8 that provides a visual indication of the amount of 9 lift an aircraft is generating at a given airspeed or 10 angle of bank. 11 (4) BACKUP FIRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEMS.— 12 The term ‘‘backup fire suppression systems’’ means 13 safety features that provide additional firefighting 14 capability to required systems that are certified by 15 the Federal Aviation Administration. 16 (5) COVERED AIR CARRIER.—The term ‘‘cov- 17 ered air carrier’’ means an air carrier operating 18 under part 121 of title 14, Code of Federal Regula- 19 tions. 20 (6) COVERED MANUFACTURER.—The term 21 ‘‘covered manufacturer’’ means an entity that manu- 22 factures or otherwise produces aircraft operating 23 under part 121 of title 14, Code of Federal Regula- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:36 Dec 20, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5401.IH H5401 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 5401 IH tions, and holds a production certificate under sec- 1 tion 44704(c) of title 49, United States Code. 2 (7) DISAGREE ALERTS.—The term ‘‘disagree 3 alerts’’ means an indication to one or more crew- 4 members that may be visual, aural, or indicated by 5 some other means, when two or more redundant air- 6 craft safety-critical sensors are providing different 7 readings. 8 (8) NON-REQUIRED SAFETY ENHANCING EQUIP- 9 MENT.—The term ‘‘non-required safety enhancing 10 equipment’’ means an apparatus, item, software, 11 alert, or system that is not required by any Federal 12 regulations and measurably increases aircraft safety, 13 including any— 14 (A) traffic advisory system; 15 (B) terrain advisory; 16 (C) attitude indicator; 17 (D) weather advisory; 18 (E) crashworthiness improvement; 19 (F) configuration advisory; 20 (G) supplemental indicator; 21 (H) monitoring or detection system; 22 (I) extinguishing system; and 23 (J) stability and control apparatus, item, 24 alert, or system. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:48 Dec 16, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5401.IH H5401 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 5401 IH SEC. 3. REQUIREMENT TO OFFER OR PROVIDE NON-RE- 1 QUIRED SAFETY ENHANCING EQUIPMENT OF 2 AN AIRCRAFT. 3 (a) REQUIREMENT.—Not later than 2 years after the 4 date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall re- 5 quire a covered manufacturer to offer or provide non-re- 6 quired safety enhancing equipment without an additional 7 charge to a covered air carrier. 8 (b) NON-REQUIRED SAFETY ENHANCING EQUIP- 9 MENT PROGRAM.—To carry out the requirement in sub- 10 section (a), the Administrator shall create and implement 11 a program to identify, classify, and approve non-required 12 safety enhancing equipment that— 13 (1) has a variety of safety benefits, including 14 (but not limited to)— 15 (A) increasing overall situational aware- 16 ness; 17 (B) providing additional information other 18 than the aircraft primary system; 19 (C) providing independent warning, cau- 20 tionary, or advisory indications; and 21 (D) providing additional occupant safety 22 protection; 23 (2) is determined to be a minor change to type 24 design; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:48 Dec 16, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5401.IH H5401 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 5401 IH (3) mitigates a non-essential function failure 1 condition. 2 (c) EQUIPMENT APPROVAL.—The Administrator 3 shall identify, classify, and approve non-required safety 4 enhancing equipment that— 5 (1) has met or exceeded minimum design re- 6 quirements to assure the effective operation of the 7 non-required safety enhancing equipment; 8 (2) has met or exceeded safety objectives to en- 9 sure non-required safety enhancing equipment en- 10 hances safety and is complementary to required 11 equipment; and 12 (3) has a completed safety evaluation that con- 13 siders— 14 (A) whether the non-required safety en- 15 hancing equipment requires pilot and crew- 16 member training, taking into account the archi- 17 tecture, functionality, operational capabilities 18 and limitations of the non-required safety en- 19 hancing equipment, and assurances that all 20 foreseeable failure conditions have been identi- 21 fied and assessed; and 22 (B) interactions and operational interfaces 23 related to human factors. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:48 Dec 16, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5401.IH H5401 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 5401 IH SEC. 4. NON-REQUIRED SAFETY ENHANCING EQUIPMENT 1 REPORTING REQUIREMENT. 2 (a) REPORTING REQUIREMENT.—The Administrator 3 shall— 4 (1) require a covered manufacturer to submit to 5 the Administrator, not later than 6 months after the 6 date of enactment of this Act and every year there- 7 after, a list of all non-required safety enhancing 8 equipment the covered manufacturer offers to cov- 9 ered air carriers, without regard to whether any 10 such equipment has been approved under the process 11 established under section 2, that includes the infor- 12 mation specified in subsection (b); and 13 (2) publish on a public website, and make ac- 14 cessible to the general public, each such list sub- 15 mitted. 16 (b) CONTENT REQUIREMENTS.—With respect to 17 each non-required safety enhancing equipment a covered 18 manufacturer includes in any list submitted in accordance 19 with subsection (a), the covered manufacturer shall de- 20 scribe in detail how the equipment— 21 (1) increases overall situational awareness; 22 (2) provides additional information other than 23 the aircraft primary system; 24 (3) provides independent warning, cautionary, 25 or advisory indications; and 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:48 Dec 16, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5401.IH H5401 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •HR 5401 IH (4) provides additional occupant safety protec- 1 tion. 2 SEC. 5. REQUIRED PERFORMANCE STANDARDS FOR ANGLE 3 OF ATTACK INDICATORS, DISAGREE ALERTS, 4 AND BACKUP FIRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEMS. 5 (a) DEVELOPMENT AND CERTIFICATION REQUIRE- 6 MENTS.— 7 (1) DEADLINE FOR IMPLEMENTATION.—Not 8 later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this 9 Act, the Administrator shall— 10 (A) establish performance standards appli- 11 cable to angle of attack indicators, disagree 12 alerts, and backup fire suppression systems for 13 aircraft operating under part 121 of title 14, 14 Code of Federal Regulations; and 15 (B) implement procedures for covered 16 manufacturers to obtain certification for angle 17 of attack indicators, disagree alerts, and backup 18 fire suppression systems for such aircraft that 19 meet such performance standards as a condi- 20 tion of holding a production certificate under 21 section 44704(c) of title 49, United States 22 Code. 23 (2) MONTHLY PROGRESS REPORTS.—During 24 the 1-year period that begins on the date of enact- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:36 Dec 20, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5401.IH H5401 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •HR 5401 IH ment of this Act, the Administrator shall submit 1 monthly reports to Congress on the progress being 2 made to carry out the requirements of paragraph 3 (1). 4 (b) INSTALLATION AND OPERATION.—The Adminis- 5 trator shall require by regulation that, not later than 30 6 months after the date certification procedures are imple- 7 mented in accordance with paragraph (1)(B), angle of at- 8 tack indicators, disagree alerts, and backup fire suppres- 9 sion systems that are certified as meeting the applicable 10 performance standards established under paragraph 11 (1)(A) are installed and operated on each aircraft oper- 12 ating under part 121 of title 14, Code of Federal Regula- 13 tions. 14 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:48 Dec 16, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H5401.IH H5401 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS