I 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 772 

To direct the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to issue 

regulations to improve flight recorder and aircraft crash location requirements on certain commercial passenger aircraft in accordance with new 

International Civil Aviation Organization flight recorder standards. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 5, 2015 

Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee (for himself and Mr. PRICE of North Carolina) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 

Transportation and Infrastructure 

A BILL 

To direct the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to issue regulations to improve flight recorder 

and aircraft crash location requirements on certain commercial passenger aircraft in accordance with new International Civil Aviation Organization flight recorder 

standards. 

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 of 2015’’. 


smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
2 

•HR 772 IH

1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) In 2012 the International Civil Aviation Or4 ganization (referred to in this Act as ‘‘ICAO’’) 

5 adopted a standard requiring all new aircraft with a 

6 maximum certificated take-off mass over 15,000 

7 kilograms for which a type certificate is issued on or 

8 after 1 January, 2016, and which are required to be 

9 equipped with both a digital flight recorder (referred 

10 to in this Act as ‘‘FDR’’), and a cockpit voice re11 corder (referred to in this Act as ‘‘CVR’’), to be 

12 equipped with 2 combination FDR/CVR recorder 

13 systems. 

14 (2) It is in the public’s best interest that the 

15 second combination FDR/CVR system installed 

16 under the new ICAO standard uses a deployable 

17 combination FDR/CVR/Emergency Locator Trans18 mitter (referred to in this Act as ‘‘ELT’’) system to: 

19 maximize survivability; prevent the need for under20 water recovery of both black boxes in water inci21 dents; improve timely location of the aircraft, acci22 dent site and survivors; and to ensure rapid recovery 

23 of the FDR/CVR data for timely safety and security 

24 analysis in all crash scenarios. 

25 (3) Deployable recorder systems combine an 

26 FDR, a CVR, and ELT into one crash hardened, 


smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
3 

•HR 772 IH

1 survivable ‘‘black box’’, which releases from the air2 craft upon crash impact with land, water, and in the 

3 event of in-air explosion, enabling it to avoid the 

4 crash impact site and float indefinitely on water to 

5 avoid time-consuming and costly underwater search 

6 efforts. 

7 (4) Deployable FDR/CVR/ELT black boxes 

8 send a distress alert tracking signal to the free, 

9 global constellation of Search and Rescue (SAR) sat10 ellite transponders known as COSPAS–SARSAT; 

11 providing the position of the aircraft at point of im12 pact, aircraft tail number, country of origin, and lo13 cation of the deployable FDR/CVR/ELT black box 

14 for quick recovery and analysis. 

15 (5) Recent commercial aviation accidents exem16 plify a growing trend in difficult and costly under17 water aircraft CVR/FDR location and recovery ef18 forts: 

19 (A) March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines 

20 Flight 370, disappeared with 239 passengers 

21 and crew. International search and recovery ef22 forts for the aircraft and black boxes are ongo23 ing involving 29 nations and hundreds of mil24 lions of dollars in resources, estimated to result 


smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
4 

•HR 772 IH

1 in the most expensive search and recovery mis2 sion in aviation history. 

3 (B) June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447, 

4 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean with 216 pas5 sengers and 12 crew members. Despite locating 

6 aircraft wreckage within 5 days, it still took 

7 nearly two years and an estimated cost of over 

8 $160,000,000 to recover the FDR and CVR 

9 from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean at a 

10 depth of 12,000 feet. 

11 (C) June 30, 2009, Yemenia Airlines 

12 IY626, crashed off of the coast of Comoros, 

13 with 152 passengers and aircrew. The sole sur14 vivor, a 12-year-old girl, was found clinging to 

15 wreckage after floating in the ocean for thirteen 

16 hours. Her accounts estimated 30 to 40 pas17 sengers survived the crash but succumbed to 

18 hypothermia due to the delay in locating the 

19 downed aircraft. The FDR and CVR were not 

20 recovered until nearly two months later, at a 

21 depth of 3,900 feet. 

22 (D) January 1, 2007, Adam Air Flight 

23 574, carrying 102 passengers and aircrew 

24 crashed off the coast of Indonesia. The FDR 

25 and CVR were located nearly one month later, 


smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
5 

•HR 772 IH

1 but could not be recovered until seven months 

2 later on due to the difficulty of the underwater 

3 environment. The FDR and CVR were found at 

4 a depth of 6,600 feet and 4,600 feet apart. 

5 (6) Countries with extensive search and rescue 

6 capabilities, such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Den7 mark, Japan, Norway, United Kingdom, and the 

8 United States, have equipped military platforms, in9 cluding commercial equivalent aircraft with auto10 matic deployable black box technology. 

11 (7) Following the crash of Air France Flight 

12 447, the French Bureau d’Enqueˆtes et d’Analyses 

13 (BEA) led the International Flight Data Recovery 

14 Working Group, consisting of over 100 safety ex15 perts, that scored deployable FDR/CVR/ELT sys16 tems the highest among all evaluated technologies to 

17 improve aircraft and black box localization and re18 covery. 

19 (8) There are no recurring service/data fees as20 sociated with the use of deployable FDR/CVR/ELT 

21 systems. The COSPAS–SARSAT satellites, network 

22 and supporting infrastructure that receives the alert 

23 signal from the deployable FDR/CVR/ELT with the 

24 aircraft crash location and black box location is a 


smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
6 

•HR 772 IH

1 free, global safety service managed by governments 

2 around the world. 

3 (9) In accordance with Public Law 110–53, 

4 (Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Com5 mission Act of 2007), the Transportation Security 

6 Administration conducted a pilot program that suc7 cessfully tested in concept, the ability of automatic 

8 deployable recorder systems to improve rapid access 

9 to flight data following commercial aviation crashes, 

10 while also providing localization of downed aircraft 

11 and potential survivors. 

12 SEC. 3. REGULATIONS REQUIRING DEPLOYABLE RECORD13 ERS AND OTHER PURPOSES. 

14 (a) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 1 year after the 

15 date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the 

16 Federal Aviation Administration shall issue regulations 

17 that require all commercial passenger aircraft defined 

18 under this Act be equipped with a deployable recorder sys19 tem as the second combination FDR/CVR recorder system 

20 installed under International Civil Aviation Organization 

21 Annex 6, Part I, Amendment 35—6.3.4.5.2 Combination 

22 Recorders. 

23 (b) SCHEDULE FOR COMPLIANCE.—The regulations 

24 under subsection (a) shall require the installation of the 

25 automatic deployable recorder system required under this 


smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
7 

•HR 772 IH

1 section on commercial aircraft that are ordered by an air 

2 carrier on or after January 1, 2017. 

3 (c) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act, the following defini4 tions apply: 

5 (1) COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT.—The term ‘‘com6 mercial passenger aircraft’’ means a jet aircraft with 

7 a maximum certificated take-off mass over 15,000 

8 kilograms, and which are required to be equipped 

9 with 2 combination FDR/CVR recorder systems in 

10 accordance with ICAO Annex 6, Part I, Amendment 

11 6.3.4.5.2. 

12 (2) DEPLOYABLE RECORDER SYSTEM.—The 

13 term ‘‘deployable recorder system’’ means a flight 

14 data recorder, cockpit voice recorder, and emergency 

15 locator transmitter housed in one crash protected, 

16 floatable unit that meets the performance specifica17 tions for a Deployable Recorder system under 

18 United States Federal Aviation Administration 

19 Technical Standard Order 123c (CVR), Technical 

20 Standard Order 124c (FDR), and Minimum Oper21 ational Performance Specifications for Deployable 

22 Recorders under EUROCAE ED–112A and all sub23 sequent updates to such requirements. 

Æ 


smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS