Air Tour and Skydiving Safety Improvement Act of 2020

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 3967 To reform Federal Aviation Administration safety requirements for commercial air tour operators, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 16, 2020 Mr. SCHATZ (for himself and Ms. HIRONO) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation A BILL To reform Federal Aviation Administration safety require- ments for commercial air tour operators, 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 ‘‘Air Tour and Sky- 4 diving Safety Improvement Act of 2020’’. 5 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6 In this Act: 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:19 Jun 26, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3967.IS S3967 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 3967 IS (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) COMMERCIAL OPERATOR.—The term ‘‘com- 7 mercial operator’’ has the meaning given that term 8 in section 1.1. of title 14, Code of Federal Regula- 9 tions. 10 (4) COMMERCIAL AIR TOUR OPERATOR.—The 11 term ‘‘commercial air tour operator’’ has the mean- 12 ing given that term for purposes of part 136 of title 13 14, Code of Federal Regulations. 14 (5) PARACHUTE OPERATION.—The term ‘‘para- 15 chute operation’’ has the meaning given that term 16 for purposes of part 105 and section 119.1(e)(6) of 17 title 14, Code of Federal Regulations. 18 SEC. 3. SAFETY REQUIREMENTS FOR COMMERCIAL AIR 19 TOUR OPERATORS. 20 (a) SAFETY REFORMS.—Not later than 180 days 21 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Adminis- 22 trator shall issue new or revised regulations that provide 23 the following: 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:19 Jun 26, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3967.IS S3967 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 3967 IS (1) PART 121 OR 135 CERTIFICATE RE- 1 QUIRED.—The regulations shall provide that— 2 (A) only persons who hold a certificate 3 identifying the person as an air carrier or com- 4 mercial operator, or both, under part 119 of 5 title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, and who 6 conduct all commercial air tour operations 7 under the applicable provisions of part 121 or 8 part 135 of title 14, Code of Federal Regula- 9 tions, shall be permitted to conduct business as 10 a commercial air tour operator; and 11 (B) beginning on the date that is 1 year 12 after the date of enactment of this Act, no per- 13 son shall be permitted to conduct business as a 14 commercial air tour operator under a certificate 15 issued in accordance with the exceptions speci- 16 fied in section 119.1(e)(2) of title 14, Code of 17 Federal Regulations. 18 (2) ADDITIONAL SAFETY REQUIREMENTS.—The 19 regulations also shall— 20 (A) eliminate and repeal all exceptions cur- 21 rently provided for under section 119.1(e)(2) of 22 title 14, Code of Federal Regulations; 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:19 Jun 26, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3967.IS S3967 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 3967 IS (B) require all commercial air tour opera- 1 tors to establish safety management system 2 programs, including by— 3 (i) requiring all commercial air tour 4 operators to install crash-resistant flight 5 data recording devices capable of sup- 6 porting the requirements of the Flight 7 Operational Quality Assurance Program; 8 (ii) establishing and implementing a 9 performance-based standard for remote 10 flight data monitoring for all commercial 11 air tour operators; and 12 (iii) requiring all commercial air tour 13 operators to establish a structured flight 14 data monitoring program that reviews all 15 available data sources to identify deviations 16 from established norms and procedures 17 and other potential safety issues; 18 (C) require all commercial air tour opera- 19 tors to incorporate a controlled flight into ter- 20 rain (CFIT) avoidance training program that 21 addresses reducing the risk of CFIT accidents 22 involving continuation of flight under visual 23 flight rules (VFR) into instrument meteorolog- 24 ical conditions, with special attention paid to 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:19 Jun 26, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3967.IS S3967 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 3967 IS human factors issues, including, but not limited 1 to— 2 (i) the specific terrain, weather, and 3 infrastructure challenges relevant to the 4 operational environment; and 5 (ii) operational influence on pilot deci- 6 sion making relevant to the operational en- 7 vironment; 8 (D) require the implementation of methods 9 to provide effective terrain awareness and warn- 10 ing system (TAWS) protections while miti- 11 gating nuisance alerts for single-engine air- 12 planes operated under part 135 of title 14, 13 Code of Federal Regulations, that frequently 14 operate at altitudes below their respective 15 TAWS class design alerting threshold; and 16 (E) require the development and imple- 17 mentation of a single set of national standards 18 and operations specifications under part 135 of 19 title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (or any 20 successor regulations) applicable to all commer- 21 cial air tour operators conducting flights in 22 powered airplanes or rotorcraft. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:19 Jun 26, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3967.IS S3967 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 3967 IS SEC. 4. IMPROVING DOT RESPONSES TO SAFETY REC- 1 OMMENDATIONS. 2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1135 of title 49, United 3 States Code, is amended— 4 (1) in subsection (b), by adding at the end the 5 following new sentence: ‘‘Each response under para- 6 graph (2) or (3) of subsection (a) shall include a de- 7 tailed explanation of how the Secretary’s proposed 8 action will meet or exceed the improvement to trans- 9 portation safety recommended by the Board that 10 was not adopted or refused.’’; 11 (2) in subsection (d)— 12 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘air car- 13 rier operations conducted under part 121’’ and 14 inserting ‘‘operations conducted under part 121 15 or 135’’; and 16 (B) in paragraph (3)(B)— 17 (i) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘and’’ 18 after the semicolon; 19 (ii) in clause (ii), by striking the pe- 20 riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 21 (iii) by adding at the end the fol- 22 lowing: 23 ‘‘(iii) with respect to any recommen- 24 dation in the preceding year which the 25 Board has deemed the action of the Sec- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:23 Jun 30, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3967.IS S3967 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 7 •S 3967 IS retary as ‘Unacceptable’, a detailed expla- 1 nation of how the Secretary’s action will 2 meet or exceed the improvement to trans- 3 portation safety recommended by the 4 Board.’’; and 5 (3) in subsection (e)(2), by adding at the end 6 the following new sentence: ‘‘If on June 1 of each 7 year the Board has not received the Secretary’s re- 8 port required by this subsection, the Secretary shall 9 be prohibited from issuing new certifications under 10 part 121 or part 135 of title 14, Code of Federal 11 Regulations (or any successor regulations) until the 12 report for such year is received by the Board.’’. 13 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICABILITY.— 14 (1) IN GENERAL.—The amendments made by 15 subsection (a) take effect on the date of enactment 16 of this Act. 17 (2) DOT COMMERCIAL AVIATION SAFETY REC- 18 OMMENDATIONS REPORTS.—The amendments made 19 by paragraph (2) of subsection (a) shall apply to re- 20 ports required under section 1135(d) of title 49, 21 United States Code, for— 22 (A) the calendar year immediately pre- 23 ceding the calendar year in which this Act is 24 enacted; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:23 Jun 30, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3967.IS S3967 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 8 •S 3967 IS (B) the calendar year in which this Act is 1 enacted; and 2 (C) each calendar year thereafter. 3 SEC. 5. REMOVAL OF REGULATORY BARRIERS TO SAFETY. 4 Any rules or regulation promulgated by the Secretary 5 of Transportation in response to a safety recommendation 6 made by the National Transportation Safety Board— 7 (1) shall not be considered a regulation or rule 8 under Executive Order 13771 (5 U.S.C. 601 note; 9 relating to reducing regulation and controlling regu- 10 latory costs); 11 (2) shall not be subject to the requirements set 12 forth in that Executive order; and 13 (3) shall be exempt from any other Executive 14 order or action that prohibits the evaluation and in- 15 corporation of benefit as well as cost in accessing the 16 worthiness of a proposed rule or regulation. 17 SEC. 6. SAFETY REQUIREMENTS FOR SPORT PARACHUTE 18 OPERATIONS. 19 Not later than 60 days after the date of the enact- 20 ment of this Act, the Administrator shall— 21 (1) issue new or revised regulations governing 22 parachute operations conducted in the United States 23 that are subject to the requirements of part 105 and 24 section 119.1(e)(6) of title 14, Code of Federal Reg- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:19 Jun 26, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3967.IS S3967 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 9 •S 3967 IS ulations, so as to require that such operations de- 1 velop and implement— 2 (A) Federal Aviation Administration-ap- 3 proved aircraft maintenance and inspection pro- 4 grams that include, at a minimum, require- 5 ments for compliance with engine manufactur- 6 ers’ recommended maintenance instructions, 7 such as service bulletins and service information 8 letters for time between overhauls and compo- 9 nent life limits; 10 (B) initial and annual recurrent pilot 11 training programs that address, at a minimum, 12 operation-specific and aircraft-specific weight 13 and balance calculations, preflight inspections, 14 emergency and recovery procedures, and para- 15 chutist egress procedures for each type of air- 16 craft flown; and 17 (C) initial and annual recurrent pilot test- 18 ing programs for parachute operations pilots 19 that address, at a minimum, operation-specific 20 and aircraft-specific weight and balance calcula- 21 tions, preflight inspections, emergency and re- 22 covery procedures, and parachutist egress pro- 23 cedures for each type of aircraft flown, as well 24 as competency flight checks to determine pilot 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:23 Jun 30, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3967.IS S3967 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 10 •S 3967 IS competence in practical skills and techniques in 1 each type of aircraft; and 2 (2) revise the guidance materials contained in 3 Advisory Circular 105 2C (relating to sport para- 4 chute jumping), to include guidance for parachute 5 operations in implementing the training and testing 6 programs required under the new and revised regu- 7 lations issued in accordance with paragraph (1). 8 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:19 Jun 26, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S3967.IS S3967 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS