Safe Aviation and Flight Enhancement Act of 2023

I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3634 To direct the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to issue regulations to improve flight recorder and aircraft crash location require- ments on certain commercial passenger aircraft by requiring the installa- tion of a second combination digital flight data and cockpit voice recorder system that enables data recovery without an underwater search and recovery. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 24, 2023 Mr. COHEN (for himself and Mr. BURCHETT) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure A BILL To direct the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Adminis- tration to issue regulations to improve flight recorder and aircraft crash location requirements on certain com- mercial passenger aircraft by requiring the installation of a second combination digital flight data and cockpit voice recorder system that enables data recovery without an underwater search and recovery. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:06 Jul 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3634.IH H3634 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 2 •HR 3634 IH SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safe Aviation and 2 Flight Enhancement Act of 2023’’. 3 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4 Congress finds the following: 5 (1) Flight data recorder (referred to in this Act 6 as an ‘‘FDR’’) data and cockpit voice recorder (re- 7 ferred to in this Act as a ‘‘CVR’’) data, often re- 8 ferred to as ‘‘black box’’ data, on commercial pas- 9 senger aircraft is crucial in all aircraft crash inves- 10 tigations, providing vital information to determine 11 the cause of an accident and to prevent future 12 recurrences. 13 (2) Underwater locating device (referred to in 14 this Act as a ‘‘ULD’’) beacons generate a low oper- 15 ating frequency to increase signal detection range 16 and improve signal transmissibility through aircraft 17 structures to aid in the identification of aircraft 18 wreckage. Airframe-mounted ULDs with a minimum 19 operating life of 90 days will improve the underwater 20 search for aircraft wreckage. 21 (3) Aircraft equipped with a tamper-resistant 22 method to broadcast to a ground station sufficient 23 information to establish the location within 6 nau- 24 tical miles (referred to in this Act as ‘‘nm’’) of 25 where an aircraft terminates flight will facilitate a 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:06 Jul 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3634.IH H3634 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 3 •HR 3634 IH quicker identification of an accident location, a fast- 1 er search and rescue response, and a more effective 2 search effort in remote locations and overwater acci- 3 dents. Use of an emergency locator transmitter (re- 4 ferred to in this Act as an ‘‘ELT’’), whether as a 5 stand-alone unit or as part of an automatic 6 deployable flight recorder, can transmit the location 7 of an accident and provide a homing capability for 8 search and rescue personnel. In addition, more fre- 9 quent broadcasts from data link communication sys- 10 tems are capable of reporting an aircraft’s position 11 every minute to reduce the search area to a radius 12 of less than 6 nm. 13 (4) As the aviation environment grows more 14 complex, to include a surge in air traffic, the inte- 15 gration of new manned and unmanned aerial and 16 space vehicle activity, an increasingly dynamic na- 17 tional security environment, and the growth of ex- 18 tended overwater and remote location flight routes, 19 it is imperative for air safety investigators to quickly 20 locate a downed aircraft and survivors, and to have 21 rapid access to secure black box data to enable and 22 support the early identification of safety and secu- 23 rity issues, and the quick implementation of appro- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:06 Jul 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3634.IH H3634 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 4 •HR 3634 IH priate preventative actions to address potential risks 1 to the commercial aviation fleet. 2 (5) Air crash victim families deserve assurances 3 that search and rescue teams will have rapid access 4 to a crash location’s site to speed survivor recovery 5 efforts, and that victim families will have access to 6 timely and factual information regarding the cause 7 of an accident and the fate of their loved ones. 8 (6) Hundreds of millions of dollars are unneces- 9 sarily expended, and significant time is wasted in ef- 10 forts to locate and recover traditional fixed ‘‘black 11 boxes’’ in underwater crash investigations. 12 (7) Existing, advanced flight recorder tech- 13 nologies are available today that will aid in the rapid 14 location of an aircraft and potential survivors, while 15 also providing safety investigators with timelier re- 16 covery of FDR/CVR data by avoiding accident inves- 17 tigation delays caused by prolonged underwater and 18 remote location search operations. 19 (8) Recent commercial passenger aircraft crash- 20 es involving United States and international manu- 21 factured aircraft have demonstrated the significant 22 challenges and unnecessary delays safety investiga- 23 tors face in trying to locate and recover traditional 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:06 Jul 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3634.IH H3634 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 5 •HR 3634 IH fixed black boxes from the bottom of the ocean, in- 1 cluding the following: 2 (A) On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines 3 Flight 370, B–777–200ER, disappeared with 4 239 passengers and crew. International search 5 and recovery efforts for the aircraft and black 6 boxes have involved 29 nations and hundreds of 7 millions of dollars in resources, becoming the 8 most expensive search and recovery mission in 9 aviation history. Nine years later, the aircraft is 10 still missing, and the cause of the crash is still 11 unknown. 12 (B) On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 13 447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean with 216 14 passengers and 12 crewmembers. Despite locat- 15 ing aircraft wreckage within 5 days, it still took 16 nearly 2 years and an estimated cost of over 17 $160,000,000 to recover the FDR and CVR 18 from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean at a 19 depth of 12,000 feet. 20 (C) On October 29, 2018, Lion Air 610 21 became the first of two fatal B–737 Max 8 22 crashes. Despite being in only 100 feet of 23 water, it took investigators 77 days to locate 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:06 Jul 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3634.IH H3634 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 6 •HR 3634 IH and recover the CVR, which provided critical in- 1 formation. 2 (D) On July 2, 2021, Transair Flight 810, 3 B–737–200, crashed off the coast of Mamala 4 Bay, Oahu. While investigators knew the loca- 5 tion of the aircraft, it took 4 months to recover 6 the FDR and CVR from the bottom of the 7 ocean. 8 (E) On January 9, 2021, Sriwijaya Air 9 Flight 182, B–737–500, crashed into the Java 10 Sea in a depth of only 89 feet, yet the recovery 11 of the CVR still took 81 days. 12 (F) On June 30, 2009, Yemenia Airlines 13 IY626 crashed off of the coast of Comoros, with 14 152 passengers and aircrew. The sole survivor, 15 a 12-year-old girl, was found clinging to wreck- 16 age after floating in the ocean for 13 hours. 17 Her accounts shared that more passengers sur- 18 vived the crash but succumbed to hypothermia 19 due to the delay in locating the downed aircraft. 20 The FDR and CVR were not recovered until 21 nearly 2 months later, at a depth of 3,900 feet. 22 (G) On January 1, 2007, Adam Air Flight 23 574, carrying 102 passengers and aircrew, 24 crashed off the coast of Indonesia. The FDR 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:06 Jul 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3634.IH H3634 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 7 •HR 3634 IH and CVR were located within 1 month, but 1 could not be recovered until 7 months later due 2 to the difficulty of the underwater environment. 3 The FDR and CVR were found at a depth of 4 6,600 feet and 4,600 feet apart. 5 (9) In 2012, the International Civil Aviation 6 Organization (referred to in this Act as the 7 ‘‘ICAO’’) adopted a standard requiring all aircraft 8 with a maximum certificated takeoff mass over 9 15,000 kilograms (kg) for which a type certificate is 10 issued on or after January 1, 2016, and which are 11 required to be equipped with both a CVR and FDR, 12 to be equipped with two combination FDR/CVR re- 13 corder systems. 14 (10) In 2016, ICAO issued an additional ruling 15 that as of January 2021, all new commercial aircraft 16 types must be equipped with a means to recover 17 flight recorder data in a timely manner. The intent 18 for this standard is to enable authorities to recover 19 at least one set of FDR/CVR data without the need 20 for underwater searches or prolonged terrain 21 searches. 22 (11) On October 7, 2014, following the dis- 23 appearance of MH370 and the nearly 2-year search 24 and recovery effort required to retrieve the black 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:06 Jul 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3634.IH H3634 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 8 •HR 3634 IH boxes from Air France Flight 447, the National 1 Transportation Safety Board (referred to in this Act 2 as the ‘‘NTSB’’) convened the ‘‘Emerging Flight 3 Data and Locator Technology Forum’’. The forum 4 included government, industry, and investigative ex- 5 perts to discuss technologies that could be used to 6 improve the location of aircraft wreckage and the 7 timely recovery of flight data following accidents in 8 remote locations or over water. 9 (12) The NTSB has stated its highest concern 10 is for aircraft that fly extended overwater operations 11 outside of radar coverage because timely response 12 and recovery of data are more challenging when an 13 accident occurs in a remote area. Currently, aircraft 14 that fly extended overwater operations must carry 15 additional survival equipment, such as liferafts and 16 survival-type emergency locator transmitters to miti- 17 gate the risks, and would benefit from the addition 18 of safety technology outlined in this Act. 19 (13) As a result of the 2014 safety forum, the 20 NTSB formally issued safety recommendations to 21 the Federal Aviation Administration (referred to in 22 this Act as the ‘‘FAA’’), aligning with the ICAO 23 regulations, to require that all newly manufactured 24 aircraft operating extended overwater operations and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:06 Jul 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3634.IH H3634 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 9 •HR 3634 IH operating under part 121 or part 135 of title 14, 1 Code of Federal Regulations, that are required to 2 have a CVR and a FDR, be equipped with a tamper- 3 resistant method to broadcast sufficient information 4 to establish the location where an aircraft terminates 5 flight within 6 nm (A–15–001), an airframe low-fre- 6 quency ULD that will function for at least 90 days 7 (A–15–002), and a secondary FDR/CVR system 8 that enables the recovery of mandatory flight data 9 parameters without the need for an underwater re- 10 trieval (A–15–003). 11 (14) In support of commercial passenger safety 12 and national security, it is in the public’s best inter- 13 est that the FAA initiate a formal rulemaking proc- 14 ess to implement the NTSB’s Safety Recommenda- 15 tions A–15–001 through A–15–003 in order to— 16 (A) provide aviation safety investigators 17 with critical FDR and CVR data without the 18 delays and cost of underwater search and recov- 19 eries; 20 (B) achieve redundancy and maximize sur- 21 vivability of the most important crash investiga- 22 tion tool equipped on commercial passenger air- 23 craft; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:06 Jul 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3634.IH H3634 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 10 •HR 3634 IH (C) ensure rapid recovery of the FDR and 1 CVR data for timely safety and security anal- 2 ysis in all crash scenarios; and 3 (D) improve timely location of the aircraft, 4 accident site, and survivors. 5 (15) The NTSB safety recommendations do not 6 dictate the technology that must be used to achieve 7 these safety goals but does cite at least two accept- 8 able technologies to meet the requirement, to include 9 automatic deployable flight recorder systems and 10 transmission of flight recorder data systems. 11 (16) Automatic deployable flight recorder sys- 12 tems combine a FDR, CVR, and ELT into one 13 crash-hardened, survivable ‘‘black box’’, which re- 14 leases from the aircraft upon crash impact with 15 land, or water, and in the event of in-air explosion, 16 enabling it to avoid the crash impact site and float 17 indefinitely in overwater accidents. The floating 18 deployable recorder sends a distress alert tracking 19 signal to the free, global constellation of Search and 20 Rescue (SAR) satellite transponders known as 21 COSPAS–SARSAT, immediately providing the posi- 22 tion of the downed aircraft at point of impact to as- 23 sist in the location of survivors and the location of 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:06 Jul 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3634.IH H3634 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 11 •HR 3634 IH the floating deployable FDR and CVR black box for 1 rapid recovery and analysis. 2 (17) Transmission of flight recorder data in- 3 volves monitoring aircraft flight parameters and 4 triggering satellite transmission of critical flight 5 data when the parameters deviate from their normal 6 operating envelope and can also assist in identifying 7 the location of a downed aircraft. 8 (18) Use of either the automatic deployable 9 flight recorder or transmission of flight recorder 10 data technologies, when used to supplement the cur- 11 rent mandatory onboard fixed FDR and CVR, will 12 provide investigators more timely access to informa- 13 tion, offering valuable insight into the circumstances 14 at the end of an accident flight while helping to 15 focus an investigation during the search for sur- 16 vivors, and recovery of traditional fixed recorders 17 and wreckage from underwater crash sites. 18 (19) CVRs provide unique information with 19 which the NTSB can conduct more thorough inves- 20 tigations to target safety recommendations more ef- 21 fectively. The current 2-hour CVR standard record- 22 ing duration has hampered safety investigations be- 23 cause relevant portions of the recordings were over- 24 written. In 2018, the NTSB issued Recomm [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]