§44746 — Title 49 Transportation | U.S. Code

Summary

The FAA must finish writing rules within 18 months so that, no later than 5 years after this law is passed, certain airplanes must have three safety systems. They must be able to recover required flight data after a crash without pulling the cockpit voice or flight data recorders out of the water. They must have a tamper-resistant system that sends enough information to a ground station to show where the plane ended its flight. They must have a low-frequency underwater locator attached to the airframe that works for at least 90 days and can be detected. "Applicable aircraft" means a plane that was built on or after January 1, 2028, is flown under part 121 of the Federal Aviation Regulations, is required to carry cockpit voice and flight data recorders, and is used for extended overwater operations.

Title 49, §44746

Transportation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this section, the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall complete a rulemaking proceeding to require that, not later than 5 years after the date of enactment of this section, all applicable aircraft are—

(1)fitted with a means, in the event of an accident, to recover mandatory flight data parameters in a manner that does not require the underwater retrieval of the cockpit voice recorder or flight data recorder;

(2)equipped with a tamper-resistant method to broadcast sufficient information to a ground station to establish the location where an applicable aircraft terminates flight as the result of such an event; and

(3)equipped with an airframe low-frequency underwater locating device that functions for at least 90 days and that can be detected by appropriate equipment.

(b)In this section, the term “applicable aircraft” means an aircraft manufactured on or after January 1, 2028, that is—

(1)operated under part 121 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations;

(2)required by regulation to have a cockpit voice recorder and a flight data recorder; and

(3)used in extended overwater operations.

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The date of enactment of this section, referred to in subsec. (a), is the date of enactment of Pub. L. 118–63, which was approved May 16, 2024.

§44746 Flight Data Recovery From Overwater Operations

Summary

Title 49, §44746

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

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