I 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2632

To direct the Secretary of Transportation to issue a regulation requiring 

the installation of 2 combination cockpit voice recorder and digital flight 

data recorder systems in each commercial passenger aircraft, currently 

required to carry each of those recorders, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 26, 2003

Mr. DUNCAN 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 2 combination cockpit 

voice recorder and digital flight data recorder systems 

in each commercial passenger aircraft, currently required 

to carry each of those recorders, 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 ‘‘Safe Aviation and 

5 Flight Enhancement Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 
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1 (1) The events of September 11, 2001, dem2 onstrated that the United States needs to do more 

3 to ensure the survivability and quick retrieval of crit4 ical flight data and cockpit voice recording units 

5 aboard commercial aircraft. 

6 (2) Increased national security threats to com7 mercial airliners demand that the United States do 

8 everything possible to better secure the safety of our 

9 passengers by ensuring the quick and complete re10 covery of critical flight data from commercial air dis11 asters for immediate analysis of potential terrorism 

12 and to avoid unnecessary grounding of our commer13 cial air fleet. 

14 (3) In light of new commercial aviation ad15 vances, including increased polar flights, increased 

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

17 there is increased potential for more difficult loca18 tion and recovery of fixed flight recorder and cockpit 

19 voice recorder units. 

20 (4) Hundreds of millions of dollars are unneces21 sarily expended to locate and recover ‘‘black boxes’’, 

22 especially in underwater investigations, despite exist23 ing deployable recorder technology currently used by 

24 the United States Armed Forces, which would allow 

25 us to avoid such unnecessary and wasteful costs. 
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1 (5) It is in the public’s best interest to accom2 plish these improvements by implementing the 

3 March, 9, 1999, recommendations A–99–16 through 

4 A–99–18 of the National Transportation Safety 

5 Board, in addition to incorporating a combined cock6 pit voice recorder and digital flight data recorder 

7 system designed to eject from the rear of the air8 craft at the moment of an accident, so that the sys9 tem will avoid the direct impact forces of the crash, 

10 avoid becoming ensnarled in the wreckage or fire in11 tensity of the crash site, and float indefinitely on 

12 water. 

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

14 with deployable technology indicates that transfer of 

15 this technology into the commercial sector provides 

16 an obvious way to help us meet our goals to increase 

17 the survivability and retrieval of recorders while re18 ducing the time and cost of a mishap, investigation, 

19 search, rescue, and recovery. 

20 (7) Valuable time is lost searching for fixed 

21 flight data recorders in the wreckage of a crash site, 

22 especially at the bottom of the ocean, and critical 

23 data is unnecessarily lost in incidents in which the 

24 aircraft’s electrical supply is prematurely interrupted 

25 or the black boxes do not survive the crash cir-
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1 cumstances, as is evident in reviewing some of our 

2 most recent and devastating air incidents, the in3 cluding the following: 

4 (A) Neither flight data or cockpit voice re5 corder was recovered from American Airlines 

6 Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 that 

7 were used in the World Trade Center attacks 

8 on September 11, 2001. 

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

10 data and cockpit voice recorders from American 

11 Airlines Flight 77 that was used in the Pen12 tagon attack on September 11, 2001. In addi13 tion, the cockpit voice recorder was damaged 

14 beyond repair, rendering no information. 

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

16 voice recorder and 9 days to recover the flight 

17 data recorder from the air disaster involving 

18 Egypt Air Flight 990 in the vicinity of Nan19 tucket, Massachusetts, air disaster on October 

20 31, 1999. 

21 (D) With respect to Swiss Air Flight 111 

22 International in Halifax, Canada, on September 

23 2, 1998, the cockpit voice recorder stopped

24 nearly 6 minutes before the airplane hit the 

25 water, and it took search teams 9 days to locate 
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1 the cockpit voice recorder and 4 days to recover 

2 the flight data recorder. 

3 (E) The cockpit voice recorder and flight 

4 data recorder stopped about 40 to 50 seconds 

5 before the Valuejet Flight 592 crashed on its 

6 way back to the Miami, Florida, airport on May 

7 11, 1996. It took 15 days to recover the cockpit 

8 voice recorder, and 2 days to recover the flight 

9 data recorder from such flight because the un10 derwater locator beacon failed. 

11 (F) With respect to TWA Flight 800 

12 which exploded and crashed in the vicinity of 

13 Moriches, New York, on July 17, 1996, the 

14 cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder 

15 stopped at the time of the explosion, even 

16 though the airplane did not hit the water for 

17 another 40 to 50 seconds, and it took 7 days 

18 to recover such recorders. 

19 SEC. 3. REGULATIONS REQUIRING DEPLOYABLE RECORD20 ERS AND OTHER PURPOSES. 

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

22 States Code is amended by adding at the end the fol23 lowing: 

24 ‘‘§ 44727. Installation of additional flight recorders 

25 ‘‘(a) REGULATIONS.—
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1 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days 

2 after the date of enactment of this section, the Sec3 retary of Transportation shall issue regulations that 

4 require in accordance with this section all commer5 cial aircraft that must carry both a cockpit voice re6 corder and digital flight data recorder to be 

7 equipped with 2 combination cockpit voice and dig8 ital flight data recording systems. One system shall 

9 be located as close to the cockpit as practicable, and 

10 the other shall be mounted as far rear on the air11 frame as practicable and shall be a deployable re12 corder system. 

13 ‘‘(2) MINIMUM CAPABILITIES.—Both recording 

14 systems shall be capable of recording all mandatory 

15 data parameters covering the previous 25 hours of 

16 operation and all cockpit audio, including controller17 pilot data link messages for the previous 2 hours of 

18 operation. 

19 ‘‘(3) COCKPIT SYSTEM.—The system located 

20 near the cockpit shall be powered by the electrical 

21 bus to provide the second highest reliability for oper22 ation without jeopardizing service to essential or 

23 emergency loads. In addition, such system shall be 

24 provided with an independent power source that is 

25 located with the combination recorder and that auto-
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1 matically engages and provides 10 minutes of oper2 ation whenever normal aircraft power ceases. 

3 ‘‘(4) REAR SYSTEM.—The rear system shall be 

4 powered by the electrical bus to provide the max5 imum reliability for operation without jeopardizing 

6 service to essential or emergency loads. In addition, 

7 such system shall be provided with an independent 

8 power source that is located with the combination 

9 recorder and that automatically engages and pro10 vides 10 minutes of operation whenever normal air11 craft power ceases. 

12 ‘‘(b) SCHEDULE FOR INSTALLATION OF DUAL COM13 BINED SYSTEMS.—The regulations shall require the in14 stallation of front combination fixed recorder systems and 

15 rear combination, deployable recorder system required 

16 under this section on commercial aircraft that are ordered 

17 by an air carrier on or after January 1, 2005. 

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

19 definitions apply: 

20 ‘‘(1) COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT.—The term ‘com21 mercial aircraft’ means—

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

23 or greater than 12,500 pound maximum takeoff 

24 weight; and 
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1 ‘‘(B) a propeller driven aircraft with great2 er than 19 seats or greater than 19,000 pound 

3 maximum takeoff weight. 

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

5 term ‘deployable recorder system’ means a digital 

6 flight data recorder, cockpit voice recorder and 

7 emergency locator transmitter housed as one unit 

8 within an assembly that is designed to be mounted 

9 conformal to the surface of the airframe, eject from 

10 the aircraft upon accident and fly away from the 

11 crash site, and float indefinitely on water.’’. 

12 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The analysis for 

13 such chapter is amended by adding at the end the fol14 lowing:

‘‘44727. Installation of additional flight recorders.’’.

15 SEC. 4. PURCHASE OF FIXED AND DEPLOYABLE RECORDER 

16 SYSTEMS. 

17 The Secretary of Transportation shall purchase and 

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

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

20 fixed recorder systems and deployable recorder systems as 

21 may be necessary for the air carrier to comply with the 

22 regulations issued under section 44727 of such title. 

23 SEC. 5. REIMBURSEMENT OF AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURERS. 

24 The Secretary of Transportation shall reimburse air25 craft manufacturers owned or controlled by a citizen of 
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1 the United States (as defined in section 40102 of title 49, 

2 United States Code) for engineering, certification, and in3 stallation costs they incur in developing and installing 

4 fixed recorder systems and deployable recorder systems to 

5 comply with the regulations issued under section 44727 

6 of such title.

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