SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) In 2012 the International Civil Aviation Or-
ganization (referred to in this Act as ‘‘ICAO’’) 
adopted a standard requiring all new aircraft with a 
maximum certificated take-off mass over 15,000 
kilograms for which a type certificate is issued on or 
after 1 January, 2016, and which are required to be 
equipped with both a digital flight recorder (referred 
to in this Act as ‘‘FDR’’), and a cockpit voice re-
corder (referred to in this Act as ‘‘CVR’’), to be 
equipped with 2 combination FDR/CVR recorder 
systems. 
(2) It is in the public’s best interest that the 
second combination FDR/CVR system installed 
under the new ICAO standard uses a deployable 
combination FDR/CVR/Emergency Locator Trans-
mitter (referred to in this Act as ‘‘ELT’’) system to: 
maximize survivability; prevent the need for under-
water recovery of both black boxes in water inci-
dents; improve timely location of the aircraft, acci-
dent site and survivors; and to ensure rapid recovery 
of the FDR/CVR data for timely safety and security 
analysis in all crash scenarios. 
(3) Deployable recorder systems combine an 
FDR, a CVR, and ELT into one crash hardened, 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:57 Feb 12, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H772.IH
H772
smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
survivable ‘‘black box’’, which releases from the air-
craft upon crash impact with land, water, and in the 
event of in-air explosion, enabling it to avoid the 
crash impact site and float indefinitely on water to 
avoid time-consuming and costly underwater search 
efforts. 
(4) Deployable FDR/CVR/ELT black boxes 
send a distress alert tracking signal to the free, 
global constellation of Search and Rescue (SAR) sat-
ellite transponders known as COSPAS–SARSAT; 
providing the position of the aircraft at point of im-
pact, aircraft tail number, country of origin, and lo-
cation of the deployable FDR/CVR/ELT black box 
for quick recovery and analysis. 
(5) Recent commercial aviation accidents exem-
plify a growing trend in difficult and costly under-
water aircraft CVR/FDR location and recovery ef-
forts: 
(A) March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines 
Flight 370, disappeared with 239 passengers 
and crew. International search and recovery ef-
forts for the aircraft and black boxes are ongo-
ing involving 29 nations and hundreds of mil-
lions of dollars in resources, estimated to result 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:57 Feb 12, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H772.IH
H772
smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
in the most expensive search and recovery mis-
sion in aviation history. 
(B) June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447, 
crashed into the Atlantic Ocean with 216 pas-
sengers and 12 crew members. Despite locating 
aircraft wreckage within 5 days, it still took 
nearly two years and an estimated cost of over 
$160,000,000 to recover the FDR and CVR 
from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean at a 
depth of 12,000 feet. 
(C) June 30, 2009, Yemenia Airlines 
IY626, crashed off of the coast of Comoros, 
with 152 passengers and aircrew. The sole sur-
vivor, a 12-year-old girl, was found clinging to 
wreckage after floating in the ocean for thirteen 
hours. Her accounts estimated 30 to 40 pas-
sengers survived the crash but succumbed to 
hypothermia due to the delay in locating the 
downed aircraft. The FDR and CVR were not 
recovered until nearly two months later, at a 
depth of 3,900 feet. 
(D) January 1, 2007, Adam Air Flight 
574, carrying 102 passengers and aircrew 
crashed off the coast of Indonesia. The FDR 
and CVR were located nearly one month later, 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:57 Feb 12, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H772.IH
H772
smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
but could not be recovered until seven months 
later on due to the difficulty of the underwater 
environment. The FDR and CVR were found at 
a depth of 6,600 feet and 4,600 feet apart. 
(6) Countries with extensive search and rescue 
capabilities, such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, Den-
mark, Japan, Norway, United Kingdom, and the 
United States, have equipped military platforms, in-
cluding commercial equivalent aircraft with auto-
matic deployable black box technology. 
(7) Following the crash of Air France Flight 
447, the French Bureau d’Enqueˆtes et d’Analyses 
(BEA) led the International Flight Data Recovery 
Working Group, consisting of over 100 safety ex-
perts, that scored deployable FDR/CVR/ELT sys-
tems the highest among all evaluated technologies to 
improve aircraft and black box localization and re-
covery. 
(8) There are no recurring service/data fees as-
sociated with the use of deployable FDR/CVR/ELT 
systems. The COSPAS–SARSAT satellites, network 
and supporting infrastructure that receives the alert 
signal from the deployable FDR/CVR/ELT with the 
aircraft crash location and black box location is a 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:57 Feb 12, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H772.IH
H772
smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
free, global safety service managed by governments 
around the world. 
(9) In accordance with Public Law 110–53, 
(Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Com-
mission Act of 2007), the Transportation Security 
Administration conducted a pilot program that suc-
cessfully tested in concept, the ability of automatic 
deployable recorder systems to improve rapid access 
to flight data following commercial aviation crashes, 
while also providing localization of downed aircraft 
and potential survivors. 
SEC. 3. REGULATIONS REQUIRING DEPLOYABLE RECORD-
ERS AND OTHER PURPOSES. 
(a) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 1 year after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the 
Federal Aviation Administration shall issue regulations 
that require all commercial passenger aircraft defined 
under this Act be equipped with a deployable recorder sys-
tem as the second combination FDR/CVR recorder system 
installed under International Civil Aviation Organization 
Annex 6, Part I, Amendment 35—6.3.4.5.2 Combination 
Recorders. 
(b) SCHEDULE FOR COMPLIANCE.—The regulations 
under subsection (a) shall require the installation of the 
automatic deployable recorder system required under this 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:57 Feb 12, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H772.IH
H772
smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
section on commercial aircraft that are ordered by an air 
carrier on or after January 1, 2017. 
(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act, the following defini-
tions apply: 
(1) COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT.—The term ‘‘com-
mercial passenger aircraft’’ means a jet aircraft with 
a maximum certificated take-off mass over 15,000 
kilograms, and which are required to be equipped 
with 2 combination FDR/CVR recorder systems in 
accordance with ICAO Annex 6, Part I, Amendment 
6.3.4.5.2. 
(2) DEPLOYABLE
RECORDER
SYSTEM.—The 
term ‘‘deployable recorder system’’ means a flight 
data recorder, cockpit voice recorder, and emergency 
locator transmitter housed in one crash protected, 
floatable unit that meets the performance specifica-
tions for a Deployable Recorder system under 
United States Federal Aviation Administration 
Technical Standard Order 123c (CVR), Technical 
Standard Order 124c (FDR), and Minimum Oper-
ational Performance Specifications for Deployable 
Recorders under EUROCAE ED–112A and all sub-
sequent updates to such requirements. 
Æ 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:57 Feb 12, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6301
E:\BILLS\H772.IH
H772
smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS