§44746. Flight data recovery from overwater operations

§44746. Flight data recovery from overwater operations

(a) In General.—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) Applicable Aircraft Defined.—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.