I 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5337 

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 

JULY 31, 2014 

Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee (for himself, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, and 

Mr. PASCRELL) 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 2014’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) Whereas in 2012 the International Civil 

4 Aviation Organization (‘‘ICAO’’) adopted a standard 

5 requiring all new aircraft with a maximum certifi6 cated take-off mass over 15,000 kilograms for which 

7 a type certificate is issued on or after 1 January, 

8 2016, and which are required to be equipped with 

9 both a digital flight recorder (referred to in this Act 

10 as ‘‘FDR’’), and a cockpit voice recorder (‘‘CVR’’), 

11 to be equipped with 2 combination FDR/CVR re12 corder systems. 

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

14 second combination FDR/CVR system installed 

15 under the new ICAO standard uses a deployable 

16 combination FDR/CVR/Emergency Locator Trans17 mitter (‘‘ELT’’) system to: maximize survivability; 

18 prevent the need for underwater recovery of both 

19 black boxes in water incidents; improve timely loca20 tion of the aircraft, accident site and survivors; and 

21 to ensure rapid recovery of the FDR/CVR data for 

22 timely safety and security analysis in all crash sce23 narios. 

24 (3) Deployable recorder systems combine an 

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

26 survivable ‘‘black box’’, which releases from the airVerDate Mar 15 2010 23:02 Aug 12, 2014 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5337.IH H5337

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•HR 5337 IH

1 craft upon crash impact with land, water, and in the 

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

3 crash impact site and float indefinitely on water to 

4 avoid time-consuming and costly underwater search 

5 efforts. 

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

7 send a distress alert tracking signal to the free, 

8 global constellation of Search and Rescue (SAR) sat9 ellite transponders known as COSPAS–SARSAT; 

10 providing the position of the aircraft at point of im11 pact, aircraft tail number, country of origin, and lo12 cation of the deployable FDR/CVR/ELT black box 

13 for quick recovery and analysis. 

14 (5) Recent commercial aviation accidents exem15 plify a growing trend in difficult and costly under16 water aircraft CVR/FDR location and recovery ef17 forts: 

18 (A) March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines 

19 Flight 370, disappeared with 239 passengers 

20 and crew. International search and recovery ef21 forts for the aircraft and black boxes are ongo22 ing involving 29 nations and hundreds of mil23 lions of dollars in resources, estimated to result 

24 in the most expensive search and recovery mis25 sion in aviation history. 


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

2 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean with 216 pas3 sengers and 12 crew members. Despite locating 

4 aircraft wreckage within 5 days, it still took 

5 nearly two years and an estimated cost of over 

6 $160,000,000 to recover the FDR and CVR 

7 from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean at a 

8 depth of 12,000 feet. 

9 (C) June 30, 2009, Yemenia Airlines 

10 IY626, crashed off of the coast of Comoros, 

11 with 152 passengers and aircrew. The sole sur12 vivor, a 12-year-old girl, was found clinging to 

13 wreckage after floating in the ocean for thirteen 

14 hours. Her accounts estimated 30 to 40 pas15 sengers survived the crash but succumbed to 

16 hypothermia due to the delay in locating the 

17 downed aircraft. The FDR and CVR were not 

18 recovered until nearly two months later, at a 

19 depth of 3,900 feet. 

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

21 574, carrying 102 passengers and aircrew 

22 crashed off the coast of Indonesia. The FDR 

23 and CVR were located nearly one month later, 

24 but could not be recovered until seven months 

25 later on due to the difficulty of the underwater 


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1 environment. The FDR and CVR were found at 

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

3 (6) Countries with extensive search and rescue 

4 capabilities, such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Den5 mark, Japan, Norway, United Kingdom, and the 

6 United States, have equipped military platforms, in7 cluding commercial equivalent aircraft with auto8 matic deployable black box technology. 

9 (7) Following the crash of Air France Flight 

10 447, the French Bureau d’Enqueˆtes et d’Analyses 

11 (BEA) led the International Flight Data Recovery 

12 Working Group, consisting of over 100 safety ex13 perts, that scored deployable FDR/CVR/ELT sys14 tems the highest among all evaluated technologies to 

15 improve aircraft and black box localization and re16 covery. 

17 (8) There are no recurring service/data fees as18 sociated with the use of deployable FDR/CVR/ELT 

19 systems. The COSPAS–SARSAT satellites, network 

20 and supporting infrastructure that receives the alert 

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

22 aircraft crash location and black box location is a 

23 free, global safety service managed by governments 

24 around the world. 


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

2 (Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Com3 mission Act of 2007), the Transportation Security 

4 Administration conducted a pilot program that suc5 cessfully tested in concept, the ability of automatic 

6 deployable recorder systems to improve rapid access 

7 to flight data following commercial aviation crashes, 

8 while also providing localization of downed aircraft 

9 and potential survivors. 

10 SEC. 3. REGULATIONS REQUIRING DEPLOYABLE RECORD11 ERS AND OTHER PURPOSES. 

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

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

14 Federal Aviation Administration shall issue regulations 

15 that require all commercial passenger aircraft defined 

16 under this Act be equipped with a deployable recorder sys17 tem as the second combination FDR/CVR recorder system 

18 installed under International Civil Aviation Organization 

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

20 Recorders. 

21 (b) SCHEDULE FOR COMPLIANCE.—The regulations 

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

23 automatic deployable recorder system required under this 

24 section on commercial aircraft that are ordered by an air 

25 carrier on or after January 1, 2016. 


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1 (c) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act, the following defini2 tions apply: 

3 (1) COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT.—The term ‘‘com4 mercial passenger aircraft’’ means a jet aircraft with 

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

6 kilograms, and which are required to be equipped 

7 with 2 combination FDR/CVR recorder systems in 

8 accordance with ICAO Annex 6, Part I, Amendment 

9 6.3.4.5.2. 

10 (2) DEPLOYABLE RECORDER SYSTEM.—The 

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

12 data recorder, cockpit voice recorder, and emergency 

13 locator transmitter housed in one crash protected, 

14 floatable unit that meets the performance specifica15 tions for a Deployable Recorder system under 

16 United States Federal Aviation Administration 

17 Technical Standard Order 123c (CVR), Technical 

18 Standard Order 124c (FDR), and Minimum Oper19 ational Performance Specifications for Deployable 

20 Recorders under EUROCAE ED–112A and all sub21 sequent updates to such requirements. 

Æ 


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