[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5401 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 5401
To require aircraft manufacturers to offer or provide non-required
safety enhancing equipment of an aircraft without additional charge to
an air carrier, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
December 11, 2019
Mr. Cohen introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require aircraft manufacturers to offer or provide non-required
safety enhancing equipment of an aircraft without additional charge to
an air carrier, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Safety is Not for Sale Act of
2019''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Administrator.--The term ``Administrator'' means the
Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration.
(2) Air carrier.--The term ``air carrier'' has the meaning
given that term in section 40102 of title 49, United States
Code.
(3) Angle of attack indicator.--The term ``angle of attack
indicator'' means an instrument that provides a visual
indication of the amount of lift an aircraft is generating at a
given airspeed or angle of bank.
(4) Backup fire suppression systems.--The term ``backup
fire suppression systems'' means safety features that provide
additional firefighting capability to required systems that are
certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.
(5) Covered air carrier.--The term ``covered air carrier''
means an air carrier operating under part 121 of title 14, Code
of Federal Regulations.
(6) Covered manufacturer.--The term ``covered
manufacturer'' means an entity that manufactures or otherwise
produces aircraft operating under part 121 of title 14, Code of
Federal Regulations, and holds a production certificate under
section 44704(c) of title 49, United States Code.
(7) Disagree alerts.--The term ``disagree alerts'' means an
indication to one or more crewmembers that may be visual,
aural, or indicated by some other means, when two or more
redundant aircraft safety-critical sensors are providing
different readings.
(8) Non-required safety enhancing equipment.--The term
``non-required safety enhancing equipment'' means an apparatus,
item, software, alert, or system that is not required by any
Federal regulations and measurably increases aircraft safety,
including any--
(A) traffic advisory system;
(B) terrain advisory;
(C) attitude indicator;
(D) weather advisory;
(E) crashworthiness improvement;
(F) configuration advisory;
(G) supplemental indicator;
(H) monitoring or detection system;
(I) extinguishing system; and
(J) stability and control apparatus, item, alert,
or system.
SEC. 3. REQUIREMENT TO OFFER OR PROVIDE NON-REQUIRED SAFETY ENHANCING
EQUIPMENT OF AN AIRCRAFT.
(a) Requirement.--Not later than 2 years after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall require a covered
manufacturer to offer or provide non-required safety enhancing
equipment without an additional charge to a covered air carrier.
(b) Non-Required Safety Enhancing Equipment Program.--To carry out
the requirement in subsection (a), the Administrator shall create and
implement a program to identify, classify, and approve non-required
safety enhancing equipment that--
(1) has a variety of safety benefits, including (but not
limited to)--
(A) increasing overall situational awareness;
(B) providing additional information other than the
aircraft primary system;
(C) providing independent warning, cautionary, or
advisory indications; and
(D) providing additional occupant safety
protection;
(2) is determined to be a minor change to type design; and
(3) mitigates a non-essential function failure condition.
(c) Equipment Approval.--The Administrator shall identify,
classify, and approve non-required safety enhancing equipment that--
(1) has met or exceeded minimum design requirements to
assure the effective operation of the non-required safety
enhancing equipment;
(2) has met or exceeded safety objectives to ensure non-
required safety enhancing equipment enhances safety and is
complementary to required equipment; and
(3) has a completed safety evaluation that considers--
(A) whether the non-required safety enhancing
equipment requires pilot and crewmember training,
taking into account the architecture, functionality,
operational capabilities and limitations of the non-
required safety enhancing equipment, and assurances
that all foreseeable failure conditions have been
identified and assessed; and
(B) interactions and operational interfaces related
to human factors.
SEC. 4. NON-REQUIRED SAFETY ENHANCING EQUIPMENT REPORTING REQUIREMENT.
(a) Reporting Requirement.--The Administrator shall--
(1) require a covered manufacturer to submit to the
Administrator, not later than 6 months after the date of
enactment of this Act and every year thereafter, a list of all
non-required safety enhancing equipment the covered
manufacturer offers to covered air carriers, without regard to
whether any such equipment has been approved under the process
established under section 2, that includes the information
specified in subsection (b); and
(2) publish on a public website, and make accessible to the
general public, each such list submitted.
(b) Content Requirements.--With respect to each non-required safety
enhancing equipment a covered manufacturer includes in any list
submitted in accordance with subsection (a), the covered manufacturer
shall describe in detail how the equipment--
(1) increases overall situational awareness;
(2) provides additional information other than the aircraft
primary system;
(3) provides independent warning, cautionary, or advisory
indications; and
(4) provides additional occupant safety protection.
SEC. 5. REQUIRED PERFORMANCE STANDARDS FOR ANGLE OF ATTACK INDICATORS,
DISAGREE ALERTS, AND BACKUP FIRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEMS.
(a) Development and Certification Requirements.--
(1) Deadline for implementation.--Not later than 1 year
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator
shall--
(A) establish performance standards applicable to
angle of attack indicators, disagree alerts, and backup
fire suppression systems for aircraft operating under
part 121 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations; and
(B) implement procedures for covered manufacturers
to obtain certification for angle of attack indicators,
disagree alerts, and backup fire suppression systems
for such aircraft that meet such performance standards
as a condition of holding a production certificate
under section 44704(c) of title 49, United States Code.
(2) Monthly progress reports.--During the 1-year period
that begins on the date of enactment of this Act, the
Administrator shall submit monthly reports to Congress on the
progress being made to carry out the requirements of paragraph
(1).
(b) Installation and Operation.--The Administrator shall require by
regulation that, not later than 30 months after the date certification
procedures are implemented in accordance with paragraph (1)(B), angle
of attack indicators, disagree alerts, and backup fire suppression
systems that are certified as meeting the applicable performance
standards established under paragraph (1)(A) are installed and operated
on each aircraft operating under part 121 of title 14, Code of Federal
Regulations.
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