II 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1199 

To increase the safety of the crew and passengers in air ambulances. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 8, 2009 

Ms. CANTWELL introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 

referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To increase the safety of the crew and passengers in air 

ambulances. 

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 ‘‘Air Medical Service 

5 Safety Improvement Act of 2009’’. 

6 SEC. 2. INCREASING SAFETY FOR HELICOPTER AND FIXED7 WING EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICE OPER8 ATORS AND PATIENTS. 

9 (a) COMPLIANCE REGULATIONS.— 

10 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para11 graph (2), not later than 18 months after the date 

12 of enactment of this Act, helicopter and fixed-wing 


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1 aircraft certificate holders providing emergency med2 ical services shall comply with part 135 of title 14, 

3 Code of Federal Regulations, if there is a medical 

4 crew on board, without regard to whether there are 

5 patients on board. 

6 (2) EXCEPTION.—If a certificate holder de7 scribed in paragraph (1) is operating under instru8 ment flight rules or is carrying out training there9 for— 

10 (A) the weather minimums and duty and 

11 rest time regulations under such part 135 of 

12 such title shall apply; and 

13 (B) the weather reporting requirement at 

14 the destination shall not apply until such time 

15 as the Administrator of the Federal Aviation 

16 Administration determines that portable, reli17 able, and accurate ground-based weather meas18 uring and reporting systems are available. 

19 (b) IMPLEMENTATION OF FLIGHT RISK EVALUATION

20 PROGRAM.— 

21 (1) INITIATION.—Not later than 60 days after 

22 the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator 

23 of the Federal Aviation Administration shall initiate 

24 a rulemaking— 


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1 (A) to create a standardized checklist of 

2 risk evaluation factors based on Notice 

3 8000.301, which was issued by the Administra4 tion on August 1, 2005; and 

5 (B) to require helicopter and fixed-wing 

6 aircraft emergency medical service operators to 

7 use the checklist created under subparagraph 

8 (A) to determine whether a mission should be 

9 accepted. 

10 (2) COMPLETION.—The rulemaking initiated 

11 under paragraph (1) shall be completed not later 

12 than 18 months after it such initiation. 

13 (c) COMPREHENSIVE CONSISTENT FLIGHT DIS14 PATCH PROCEDURES.— 

15 (1) INITIATION.—Not later than 60 days after 

16 the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator 

17 of the Federal Aviation Administration shall initiate 

18 a rulemaking— 

19 (A) to require that helicopter and fixed20 wing emergency medical service operators for21 malize and implement performance-based flight 

22 dispatch and flight following procedures; and 

23 (B) to develop a method to assess and en24 sure that such operators comply with the re25 quirements described in subparagraph (A). 


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1 (2) COMPLETION.—The rulemaking initiated 

2 under paragraph (1) shall be completed not later 

3 than 18 months after it such initiation. 

4 (d) IMPROVING SITUATIONAL AWARENESS.—Not 

5 later than one year after the date of enactment of this 

6 Act, any helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft used for emer7 gency medical service shall have on board a device that 

8 performs the function of a terrain awareness and warning 

9 system and a means of displaying that information that 

10 meets the requirements of the applicable Federal Aviation 

11 Administration Technical Standard Order or other guid12 ance prescribed by the Administrator. 

13 (e) IMPROVING THE DATA AVAILABLE ON AIR MED14 ICAL OPERATIONS.— 

15 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator of the 

16 Federal Aviation Administration shall require each 

17 certificate holder for helicopters and fixed-wing air18 craft used for emergency medical service operations 

19 to report not later than 1 year after the date of en20 actment of this Act and annually thereafter on— 

21 (A) the number of aircraft and helicopters 

22 used to provide air ambulance services, the reg23 istration number of each of these aircraft or 

24 helicopters, and the base location of each of 

25 these aircraft or helicopters; 


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1 (B) the number of flights and hours flown 

2 by each such aircraft or helicopter used by the 

3 certificate holder to provide such services dur4 ing the reporting period; and 

5 (C) the number of flights and the purpose 

6 of each flight for each aircraft or helicopter 

7 used by the certificate holder to provide such 

8 services during the reporting period. 

9 (2) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—The Adminis10 trator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall 

11 report to Congress on the information received pur12 suant to paragraph (1) of this subsection no later 

13 than 18 months after the date of enactment of this 

14 Act. 

15 (f) IMPROVING THE DATA AVAILABLE TO NTSB IN16 VESTIGATORS AT CRASH SITES.— 

17 (1) STUDY.—Not later than 120 days after the 

18 date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of 

19 the Federal Aviation Administration shall issue a re20 port that indicates the availability, survivability, size, 

21 weight, and cost of devices that perform the function 

22 of recording voice communications and flight data 

23 information on existing and new helicopters and ex24 isting and new fixed-wing aircraft used for emer25 gency medical service operations. 


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1 (2) RULEMAKING.—Not later than 1 year after 

2 the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator 

3 of the Federal Aviation Administration shall issue 

4 regulations that require devices that perform the 

5 function of recording voice communications and 

6 flight data information on board aircraft described 

7 in paragraph (1). 

Æ 


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