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 nonrequired safety enhancing equipment of an aircraft without additional charge to an air carrier, and for other 

purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safety is Not for Sale 

5 Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 In this Act: 


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1 (1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis2 trator’’ means the Administrator of the Federal 

3 Aviation Administration. 

4 (2) AIR CARRIER.—The term ‘‘air carrier’’ has 

5 the meaning given that term in section 40102 of 

6 title 49, United States Code. 

7 (3) ANGLE OF ATTACK INDICATOR.—The term 

8 ‘‘angle of attack indicator’’ means an instrument 

9 that provides a visual indication of the amount of 

10 lift an aircraft is generating at a given airspeed or 

11 angle of bank. 

12 (4) BACKUP FIRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEMS.— 

13 The term ‘‘backup fire suppression systems’’ means 

14 safety features that provide additional firefighting 

15 capability to required systems that are certified by 

16 the Federal Aviation Administration. 

17 (5) COVERED AIR CARRIER.—The term ‘‘cov18 ered air carrier’’ means an air carrier operating 

19 under part 121 of title 14, Code of Federal Regula20 tions. 

21 (6) COVERED MANUFACTURER.—The term 

22 ‘‘covered manufacturer’’ means an entity that manu23 factures or otherwise produces aircraft operating 

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1 tions, and holds a production certificate under sec2 tion 44704(c) of title 49, United States Code. 

3 (7) DISAGREE ALERTS.—The term ‘‘disagree 

4 alerts’’ means an indication to one or more crew5 members that may be visual, aural, or indicated by 

6 some other means, when two or more redundant air7 craft safety-critical sensors are providing different 

8 readings. 

9 (8) NON-REQUIRED SAFETY ENHANCING EQUIP10 MENT.—The term ‘‘non-required safety enhancing 

11 equipment’’ means an apparatus, item, software, 

12 alert, or system that is not required by any Federal 

13 regulations and measurably increases aircraft safety, 

14 including any— 

15 (A) traffic advisory system; 

16 (B) terrain advisory; 

17 (C) attitude indicator; 

18 (D) weather advisory; 

19 (E) crashworthiness improvement; 

20 (F) configuration advisory; 

21 (G) supplemental indicator; 

22 (H) monitoring or detection system; 

23 (I) extinguishing system; and 

24 (J) stability and control apparatus, item, 

25 alert, or system. 


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1 SEC. 3. REQUIREMENT TO OFFER OR PROVIDE NON-RE2 QUIRED SAFETY ENHANCING EQUIPMENT OF 

3 AN AIRCRAFT. 

4 (a) REQUIREMENT.—Not later than 2 years after the 

5 date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall re6 quire a covered manufacturer to offer or provide non-re7 quired safety enhancing equipment without an additional 

8 charge to a covered air carrier. 

9 (b) NON-REQUIRED SAFETY ENHANCING EQUIP10 MENT PROGRAM.—To carry out the requirement in sub11 section (a), the Administrator shall create and implement 

12 a program to identify, classify, and approve non-required 

13 safety enhancing equipment that— 

14 (1) has a variety of safety benefits, including 

15 (but not limited to)— 

16 (A) increasing overall situational aware17 ness; 

18 (B) providing additional information other 

19 than the aircraft primary system; 

20 (C) providing independent warning, cau21 tionary, or advisory indications; and 

22 (D) providing additional occupant safety 

23 protection; 

24 (2) is determined to be a minor change to type 

25 design; and 


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1 (3) mitigates a non-essential function failure 

2 condition. 

3 (c) EQUIPMENT APPROVAL.—The Administrator 

4 shall identify, classify, and approve non-required safety 

5 enhancing equipment that— 

6 (1) has met or exceeded minimum design re7 quirements to assure the effective operation of the 

8 non-required safety enhancing equipment; 

9 (2) has met or exceeded safety objectives to en10 sure non-required safety enhancing equipment en11 hances safety and is complementary to required 

12 equipment; and 

13 (3) has a completed safety evaluation that con14 siders— 

15 (A) whether the non-required safety en16 hancing equipment requires pilot and crew17 member training, taking into account the archi18 tecture, functionality, operational capabilities 

19 and limitations of the non-required safety en20 hancing equipment, and assurances that all 

21 foreseeable failure conditions have been identi22 fied and assessed; and 

23 (B) interactions and operational interfaces 

24 related to human factors. 


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1 SEC. 4. NON-REQUIRED SAFETY ENHANCING EQUIPMENT 

2 REPORTING REQUIREMENT. 

3 (a) REPORTING REQUIREMENT.—The Administrator 

4 shall— 

5 (1) require a covered manufacturer to submit to 

6 the Administrator, not later than 6 months after the 

7 date of enactment of this Act and every year there8 after, a list of all non-required safety enhancing 

9 equipment the covered manufacturer offers to cov10 ered air carriers, without regard to whether any 

11 such equipment has been approved under the process 

12 established under section 2, that includes the infor13 mation specified in subsection (b); and 

14 (2) publish on a public website, and make ac15 cessible to the general public, each such list sub16 mitted. 

17 (b) CONTENT REQUIREMENTS.—With respect to 

18 each non-required safety enhancing equipment a covered 

19 manufacturer includes in any list submitted in accordance 

20 with subsection (a), the covered manufacturer shall de21 scribe in detail how the equipment— 

22 (1) increases overall situational awareness; 

23 (2) provides additional information other than 

24 the aircraft primary system; 

25 (3) provides independent warning, cautionary, 

26 or advisory indications; and 


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1 (4) provides additional occupant safety protec2 tion. 

3 SEC. 5. REQUIRED PERFORMANCE STANDARDS FOR ANGLE 

4 OF ATTACK INDICATORS, DISAGREE ALERTS, 

5 AND BACKUP FIRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEMS. 

6 (a) DEVELOPMENT AND CERTIFICATION REQUIRE7 MENTS.— 

8 (1) DEADLINE FOR IMPLEMENTATION.—Not 

9 later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this 

10 Act, the Administrator shall— 

11 (A) establish performance standards appli12 cable to angle of attack indicators, disagree 

13 alerts, and backup fire suppression systems for 

14 aircraft operating under part 121 of title 14, 

15 Code of Federal Regulations; and 

16 (B) implement procedures for covered 

17 manufacturers to obtain certification for angle 

18 of attack indicators, disagree alerts, and backup 

19 fire suppression systems for such aircraft that 

20 meet such performance standards as a condi21 tion of holding a production certificate under 

22 section 44704(c) of title 49, United States 

23 Code. 

24 (2) MONTHLY PROGRESS REPORTS.—During 

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1 ment of this Act, the Administrator shall submit 

2 monthly reports to Congress on the progress being 

3 made to carry out the requirements of paragraph 

4 (1). 

5 (b) INSTALLATION AND OPERATION.—The Adminis6 trator shall require by regulation that, not later than 30 

7 months after the date certification procedures are imple8 mented in accordance with paragraph (1)(B), angle of at9 tack indicators, disagree alerts, and backup fire suppres10 sion systems that are certified as meeting the applicable 

11 performance standards established under paragraph 

12 (1)(A) are installed and operated on each aircraft oper13 ating under part 121 of title 14, Code of Federal Regula14 tions. 

Æ 


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