To direct the Secretary of Transportation to issue a regulation requiring the installation of a second cockpit voice recorder and digital flight data recorder system that utilizes combination deployable recorder technology in each commercial passenger aircraft, currently required to carry each of those recorders.

Summary: Safe Aviation and Flight Enhancement Act of 2005 - Amends federal transportation law to direct the Secretary of Transportation to issue regulations requiring all commercial aircraft that must carry both a cockpit voice recorder and digital flight data recorder to be equipped with a second recorder system that utilizes deployable combination cockpit voice and digital flight data recording technology.

Requires the second deployable recorder system to be mounted as far rear on the airframe as practicable. Sets forth minimum deployable recorder capabilities.

Directs the Secretary to: (1) purchase and make available, at no cost, to an air carrier such deployable recorder systems as may be necessary for it to comply with regulations; and (2) reimburse aircraft manufacturers owned or controlled by a U.S. citizen for engineering, certification, and installation costs incurred in developing and installing deployable recorder systems to comply with regulations.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Safe Aviation and Flight Enhancement 
Act of 2005''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The events of September 11, 2001, demonstrated that the 
        United States needs to do more to ensure the survivability and 
        quick retrieval of critical flight data and cockpit voice 
        recording units aboard commercial aircraft.
            (2) Increased national security threats to commercial 
        airliners demand that the United States do everything possible 
        to better secure the safety of our passengers by ensuring the 
        quick and complete recovery of critical flight data from 
        commercial air disasters for immediate analysis of potential 
        terrorism and to avoid unnecessary grounding of our commercial 
        air fleet.
            (3) In light of new commercial aviation advances, including 
        increased polar flights, increased air traffic overwater, and 
        the onset of free flight, there is increased potential for more 
        difficult location and recovery of fixed flight recorder and 
        cockpit voice recorder units.
            (4) Hundreds of millions of dollars are unnecessarily 
        expended to locate and recover ``black boxes'', especially in 
        underwater investigations, despite existing deployable recorder 
        technology currently used by the United States Armed Forces, 
        which would allow us to avoid such unnecessary and wasteful 
        costs.
            (5) It is in the public's best interest to accomplish these 
        improvements by installing a second set of cockpit voice and 
        digital flight data recorders that utilize a combined cockpit 
        voice recorder, digital flight data recorder, and emergency 
        locator transmitter system designed to eject from the rear of 
        the aircraft at the moment of an accident, so that the system 
        will avoid the direct impact forces of the crash, avoid 
        becoming ensnarled in the wreckage or fire intensity of the 
        crash site, and float indefinitely on water.
            (6) The Navy's successful experience since 1993 with 
        deployable technology indicates that transfer of the commercial 
        version of this technology into the commercial sector provides 
        an obvious way to help us meet our goals to increase the 
        survivability and retrieval of recorders while reducing the 
        time and cost of a mishap, investigation, search, rescue, and 
        recovery.
            (7) Valuable time is lost searching for fixed flight data 
        recorders in the wreckage of a crash site, especially at the 
        bottom of the ocean, and critical data is unnecessarily lost in 
        incidents in which the black boxes do not survive the crash 
        circumstances, as is evident in reviewing some of our most 
        recent and devastating air incidents, including the following:
                    (A) Neither the flight data or cockpit voice 
                recorder was recovered from American Airlines Flight 11 
                and United Airlines Flight 175 that were used in the 
                World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001.
                    (B) It took 3 days to recover the flight data and 
                cockpit voice recorders from American Airlines Flight 
                77 that was used in the Pentagon attack on September 
                11, 2001. In addition, the cockpit voice recorder was 
                damaged beyond repair, rendering no information.
                    (C) It took 13 days to locate the cockpit voice 
                recorder and 9 days to recover the flight data recorder 
                from the air disaster involving Egypt Air Flight 990 in 
                the vicinity of Nantucket, Massachusetts, air disaster 
                on October 31, 1999.
                    (D) With respect to Swiss Air Flight 111 
                International in Halifax, Canada, on September 2, 1998, 
                it took search teams 9 days to locate the cockpit voice 
                recorder and 4 days to recover the flight data 
                recorder.
                    (E) In the case of Valuejet Flight 592, which 
                crashed on its way back to the Miami, Florida, airport 
                on May 11, 1996, it took 15 days to recover the cockpit 
                voice recorder, and 2 days to recover the flight data 
                recorder from such flight because the underwater 
                locator beacon failed.
                    (F) With respect to TWA Flight 800 which exploded 
                and crashed in the ocean in the vicinity of Moriches, 
                New York, on July 17, 1996, it took 7 days to recover 
                the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.

SEC. 3. REGULATIONS REQUIRING DEPLOYABLE RECORDERS AND OTHER PURPOSES.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 447 of title 49, United States Code is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 44729. Installation of additional flight recorders
    ``(a) Regulations.--
            ``(1) In general.--Not later than 90 days after the date of 
        enactment of this section, the Secretary of Transportation 
        shall issue regulations that require in accordance with this 
        section all commercial aircraft that must carry both a cockpit 
        voice recorder and digital flight data recorder to be equipped 
        with a second recorder system that utilizes deployable 
        combination cockpit voice and digital flight data recording 
        technology. This system shall be in addition to the current 
        mandated fixed cockpit voice recorder and digital flight data 
        recorder units on commercial aircraft. This second deployable 
        recorder system shall be mounted as far rear on the airframe as 
        practicable.
            ``(2) Minimum capabilities.--The deployable recording 
        system shall be--
                    ``(A) capable of recording all mandatory data 
                parameters covering the previous 25 hours of operation 
                and all cockpit audio, including controller-pilot data 
                link messages for the previous 2 hours of operation;
                    ``(B) powered by the electrical bus to provide the 
                maximum reliability for operation without jeopardizing 
                service to essential or emergency loads; and
                    ``(C) provided with an independent power source 
                that is located with the combination recorder and that 
                automatically engages and provides 10 minutes of 
                operation whenever normal aircraft power ceases.
    ``(b) Schedule for Installation of Second Combined System.--The 
regulations shall require the installation of the deployable 
combination recorder system required under this section on commercial 
aircraft that are ordered by an air carrier on or after January 1, 
2007.
    ``(c) Definitions.--In this section, the following definitions 
apply:
            ``(1) Commercial aircraft.--The term `commercial aircraft' 
        means--
                    ``(A) a jet aircraft with 10 or more seats or 
                greater than 12,500 pound maximum takeoff weight; and
                    ``(B) a propeller driven aircraft with greater than 
                19 seats or greater than 19,000 pound maximum takeoff 
                weight.
            ``(2) Deployable recorder system.--The term `deployable 
        recorder system' means a digital flight data recorder, cockpit 
        voice recorder and emergency locator transmitter housed as one 
        unit within an assembly that is designed to be mounted 
        conformal to the surface of the airframe, eject from the 
        aircraft upon accident and fly away from the crash site, and 
        float indefinitely on water.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--The analysis for such chapter is amended 
by adding at the end the following:

``44729. Installation of additional flight recorders.''.

SEC. 4. PURCHASE OF FIXED AND DEPLOYABLE RECORDER SYSTEMS.

    The Secretary of Transportation shall purchase and make available, 
at no cost, to an air carrier (as defined in section 40102 of title 49, 
United States Code) such deployable recorder systems as may be 
necessary for the air carrier to comply with the regulations issued 
under section 44729 of such title.

SEC. 5. REIMBURSEMENT OF AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURERS.

    The Secretary of Transportation shall reimburse aircraft 
manufacturers owned or controlled by a citizen of the United States (as 
defined in section 40102 of title 49, United States Code) for 
engineering, certification, and installation costs they incur in 
developing and installing deployable recorder systems to comply with 
the regulations issued under section 44729 of such title.