I 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3336 

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. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 19, 2005 

Mr. DUNCAN (for himself, Mr. BAKER, Mr. GORDON, Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky, Mr. TERRY, Mr. ETHERIDGE, Mr. FORD, Mr. BOOZMAN, Mr. 

PRICE of North Carolina, Mr. CAPUANO, and Mr. PASCRELL) introduced 

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation 

and Infrastructure 

A BILL 

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. 

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

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safe Aviation and 

3 Flight Enhancement Act of 2005’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

5 Congress finds the following: 

6 (1) The events of September 11, 2001, dem7 onstrated that the United States needs to do more 

8 to ensure the survivability and quick retrieval of crit9 ical flight data and cockpit voice recording units 

10 aboard commercial aircraft. 

11 (2) Increased national security threats to com12 mercial airliners demand that the United States do 

13 everything possible to better secure the safety of our 

14 passengers by ensuring the quick and complete re15 covery of critical flight data from commercial air dis16 asters for immediate analysis of potential terrorism 

17 and to avoid unnecessary grounding of our commer18 cial air fleet. 

19 (3) In light of new commercial aviation ad20 vances, including increased polar flights, increased 

21 air traffic overwater, and the onset of free flight, 

22 there is increased potential for more difficult loca23 tion and recovery of fixed flight recorder and cockpit 

24 voice recorder units. 

25 (4) Hundreds of millions of dollars are unneces26 sarily expended to locate and recover ‘‘black boxes’’, 
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1 especially in underwater investigations, despite exist2 ing deployable recorder technology currently used by 

3 the United States Armed Forces, which would allow 

4 us to avoid such unnecessary and wasteful costs. 

5 (5) It is in the public’s best interest to accom6 plish these improvements by installing a second set 

7 of cockpit voice and digital flight data recorders that 

8 utilize a combined cockpit voice recorder, digital 

9 flight data recorder, and emergency locator trans10 mitter system designed to eject from the rear of the 

11 aircraft at the moment of an accident, so that the 

12 system will avoid the direct impact forces of the 

13 crash, avoid becoming ensnarled in the wreckage or 

14 fire intensity of the crash site, and float indefinitely 

15 on water. 

16 (6) The Navy’s successful experience since 1993 

17 with deployable technology indicates that transfer of 

18 the commercial version of this technology into the 

19 commercial sector provides an obvious way to help 

20 us meet our goals to increase the survivability and 

21 retrieval of recorders while reducing the time and 

22 cost of a mishap, investigation, search, rescue, and 

23 recovery. 

24 (7) Valuable time is lost searching for fixed 

25 flight data recorders in the wreckage of a crash site, 
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1 especially at the bottom of the ocean, and critical 

2 data is unnecessarily lost in incidents in which the 

3 black boxes do not survive the crash circumstances, 

4 as is evident in reviewing some of our most recent 

5 and devastating air incidents, including the fol6 lowing: 

7 (A) Neither the flight data or cockpit voice 

8 recorder was recovered from American Airlines 

9 Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 that 

10 were used in the World Trade Center attacks 

11 on September 11, 2001. 

12 (B) It took 3 days to recover the flight 

13 data and cockpit voice recorders from American 

14 Airlines Flight 77 that was used in the Pen15 tagon attack on September 11, 2001. In addi16 tion, the cockpit voice recorder was damaged 

17 beyond repair, rendering no information. 

18 (C) It took 13 days to locate the cockpit 

19 voice recorder and 9 days to recover the flight 

20 data recorder from the air disaster involving 

21 Egypt Air Flight 990 in the vicinity of Nan22 tucket, Massachusetts, air disaster on October 

23 31, 1999. 

24 (D) With respect to Swiss Air Flight 111 

25 International in Halifax, Canada, on September 
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1 2, 1998, it took search teams 9 days to locate 

2 the cockpit voice recorder and 4 days to recover 

3 the flight data recorder. 

4 (E) In the case of Valuejet Flight 592, 

5 which crashed on its way back to the Miami, 

6 Florida, airport on May 11, 1996, it took 15 

7 days to recover the cockpit voice recorder, and 

8 2 days to recover the flight data recorder from 

9 such flight because the underwater locator bea10 con failed. 

11 (F) With respect to TWA Flight 800 

12 which exploded and crashed in the ocean in the 

13 vicinity of Moriches, New York, on July 17, 

14 1996, it took 7 days to recover the cockpit voice 

15 recorder and flight data recorder. 

16 SEC. 3. REGULATIONS REQUIRING DEPLOYABLE RECORD17 ERS AND OTHER PURPOSES. 

18 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 447 of title 49, United 

19 States Code is amended by adding at the end the fol20 lowing: 

21 ‘‘§ 44729. Installation of additional flight recorders 

22 ‘‘(a) REGULATIONS.— 

23 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days 

24 after the date of enactment of this section, the Sec25 retary of Transportation shall issue regulations that 
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1 require in accordance with this section all commer2 cial aircraft that must carry both a cockpit voice re3 corder and digital flight data recorder to be 

4 equipped with a second recorder system that utilizes 

5 deployable combination cockpit voice and digital 

6 flight data recording technology. This system shall 

7 be in addition to the current mandated fixed cockpit 

8 voice recorder and digital flight data recorder units 

9 on commercial aircraft. This second deployable re10 corder system shall be mounted as far rear on the 

11 airframe as practicable. 

12 ‘‘(2) MINIMUM CAPABILITIES.—The deployable 

13 recording system shall be— 

14 ‘‘(A) capable of recording all mandatory 

15 data parameters covering the previous 25 hours 

16 of operation and all cockpit audio, including 

17 controller-pilot data link messages for the pre18 vious 2 hours of operation; 

19 ‘‘(B) powered by the electrical bus to pro20 vide the maximum reliability for operation with21 out jeopardizing service to essential or emer22 gency loads; and 

23 ‘‘(C) provided with an independent power 

24 source that is located with the combination re25 corder and that automatically engages and pro-
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1 vides 10 minutes of operation whenever normal 

2 aircraft power ceases. 

3 ‘‘(b) SCHEDULE FOR INSTALLATION OF SECOND

4 COMBINED SYSTEM.—The regulations shall require the 

5 installation of the deployable combination recorder system 

6 required under this section on commercial aircraft that are 

7 ordered by an air carrier on or after January 1, 2007. 

8 ‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following 

9 definitions apply: 

10 ‘‘(1) COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT.—The term ‘com11 mercial aircraft’ means— 

12 ‘‘(A) a jet aircraft with 10 or more seats 

13 or greater than 12,500 pound maximum takeoff 

14 weight; and 

15 ‘‘(B) a propeller driven aircraft with great16 er than 19 seats or greater than 19,000 pound 

17 maximum takeoff weight. 

18 ‘‘(2) DEPLOYABLE RECORDER SYSTEM.—The 

19 term ‘deployable recorder system’ means a digital 

20 flight data recorder, cockpit voice recorder and 

21 emergency locator transmitter housed as one unit 

22 within an assembly that is designed to be mounted 

23 conformal to the surface of the airframe, eject from 

24 the aircraft upon accident and fly away from the 

25 crash site, and float indefinitely on water.’’. 
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1 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The analysis for 

2 such chapter is amended by adding at the end the fol3 lowing: 

‘‘44729. Installation of additional flight recorders.’’. 

4 SEC. 4. PURCHASE OF FIXED AND DEPLOYABLE RECORDER 

5 SYSTEMS. 

6 The Secretary of Transportation shall purchase and 

7 make available, at no cost, to an air carrier (as defined 

8 in section 40102 of title 49, United States Code) such 

9 deployable recorder systems as may be necessary for the 

10 air carrier to comply with the regulations issued under sec11 tion 44729 of such title. 

12 SEC. 5. REIMBURSEMENT OF AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURERS. 

13 The Secretary of Transportation shall reimburse air14 craft manufacturers owned or controlled by a citizen of 

15 the United States (as defined in section 40102 of title 49, 

16 United States Code) for engineering, certification, and in17 stallation costs they incur in developing and installing 

18 deployable recorder systems to comply with the regulations 

19 issued under section 44729 of such title. 

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