Safe Landings Act

Given that the United States enjoys an exceptionally safe aviation system with an exceedingly low frequency of airline accidents, efforts to improve aviation safety should examine nonaccident safety incidents for all possible insights.

Aviation safety should not be taken for granted, and even with so few accidents, the U.S. Aerospace System should proactively address safety concerns that emerge from our dynamic and evolving economic conditions, technology, aviation industry, and other factors.

Preventing accidents from occurring in the airport runway environment remains an objective requiring continued effort, and incidents of runway confusion, defined as the subset of runway incursions in which an aircraft unintentionally takes off or lands on a taxiway or incorrect runway, should be carefully monitored, reviewed, and studied for insights to improve safety.

While technology continues to advance and new opportunities to use technology to address safety risks in aviation are examined and pursued, the evolving role of technology and the expanding use of automation should not be used as justification to diminish attention to and prioritization of the human contribution to aviation safety. The aviation industry and the Government must ensure that training programs for flight crews and other personnel are appropriately evolving, that training standards and expectations remain rigorous, and that risks and concerns associated with the interaction between humans, technology, and automated systems are identified, studied, and addressed in a timely manner.

Pilot alerts— The Administrator shall—

In general— Once implementation of section 3(a) of this Act is complete, the National Transportation Safety Board may initiate investigations of covered events to determine risk factors specific to the airport at which such an event occurred and other elements of the National Airspace System that may contribute to the cause of the event. The National Transportation Safety Board may also elect to consider multiple events in a single report as part of a special investigation or study to examine safety factors contributing to these events.

Content— The review and analysis shall examine factors present at the time of any covered event at such airport, including—

Protection of information— Individuals involved in any manner in an investigation described in this section may request that the Board take such action as appropriate to protect from public disclosure any information that readily identifies such individual. The Board may withhold the information if the Board determines that the information may be withheld under an exemption under section 552 of title 5, United States Code, and the publication of such information is not in the public interest.

In general— The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine shall, in collaboration with other relevant Federal institutions and agencies, conduct a study on the role of human factors in high-risk professions, including aviation.

Report— Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the National Academies shall submit to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and Committee on Education and Workforce of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions of the Senate a report on the results of the study required under subsection (a), including best practices that can be implemented across all high-risk professions, including within the aviation industry, to reduce risk involved with human factors.

In general— Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall convene a task force on human factors in aviation safety (in this section referred to as the “Task Force”).

Composition— The Task Force shall consist of members appointed by the Administrator and having expertise in an operational or academic discipline that is relevant to the analysis of human errors in aviation. The number of members shall be determined by the Administrator to ensure sufficient representation of relevant operational and academic disciplines.

Disciplines— For purposes of subsection (b), disciplines may include air carrier operations, line pilot expertise, air traffic control, technical operations, aeronautical information, aircraft maintenance and mechanics psychology, linguistics, human-machine integration, general aviation operations, and organizational behavior and culture.

Duties— In coordination with the Research, Engineering, and Development Advisory Committee established under section 44508 of title 49, United States Code, the Task Force shall—

Applicable law— Section 1013 of title 5, United States Code, shall not apply to the Task Force.

In general— The Secretary shall establish a new research and development program to be undertaken by the FAA’s Consortium in Aviation Operations Research (NEXTOR III) to investigate and develop new approaches to data analysis for understanding the factors in aviation safety incidents and identifying emerging risks of future safety incidents.

Approaches— The approaches described in subsection (a) include the use of new algorithms for analyzing the text and audio of communications between flight crews and air traffic controllers and the use of machine learning or artificial intelligence methods for analyzing a variety of data sets, including, data on weather, performance of communication, navigation and surveillance equipment and facilities, flight delays, safety incidents, flight crew work schedules, and air traffic and crew member communications for detecting anomalies in the National Airspace System.

Collaboration— In carrying out the research program established in this section, member institutions of the Consortium shall collaborate in the sharing of data for the purpose of testing and demonstrating the potential effectiveness of new approaches to analysis—

Authorization of appropriations— There is authorized to be appropriated $20,000,000 for carrying out the program described in this section for each fiscal year from 2024 through 2029, including grants to participating research institutions, including the academic institutions that make up the FAA’s Consortium in Aviation Operations Research (NEXTOR III), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the FAA’s Office of Safety, the NextGen office, and units within the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization that work on safety issues.

Sunset— The program shall terminate on the date that is 6 years after the date on which the program is established.

Report— Not later than 120 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall issue a report to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate that uses a representative sample of part 121 and part 129 air carriers to review the current range of air carrier practices in requiring the use of instrument approach procedures as a backup system for visual approaches and the extent to which operators require pilots to use approach procedures.

Issuance of guidance— Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall review and analyze the collected data from the report described in subsection (a) and issue guidance to air carriers on the most effective techniques and procedures to use instrument approach procedures as a backup system for visual approaches. Such guidance shall encourage the use of instruments to provide vertical and lateral guidance to mitigate the potential for a wrong surface alignment and to provide flight crews with more precise vertical and lateral deviation information.

in paragraph (3), by striking “; and” and inserting a semicolon;

by redesignating paragraph (4) as paragraph (5); and

by inserting after paragraph (3) the following:

In general— The Comptroller General shall take the lead in carrying out a study on the risks associated with the use of CVR data in investigations led by foreign governments or units of foreign governments.

Contents— At minimum, this study shall—

In general— Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall update the guidelines of the FAA for part 121 certificate holders in implementing a Continuing Analysis and Surveillance System (CASS) for their air carrier maintenance programs to include reporting no less than once every 6 months by certificate holders to the FAA of any failure to follow procedures in aircraft maintenance as well as any major alteration, complete overhaul, or repair of mechanical irregularities of each airframe, engine, propeller, and appliance.

Advisory— Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall issue an advisory with formatting guidelines for air carriers to report information as required under subsection (a).

Inclusion— For each instance of a failure to follow procedures and for each major alteration, overhaul, or repair reported under the requirements of this section, the Administrator shall require certificate holders to include any name and any physical address where the work is carried out for each maintenance provider that performs work.

Definitions— In this section, the terms “major alterations”, “airframe”, “propeller”, and “appliance” have the meanings given such terms in part 1 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations.

Audit by the Department of Transportation Inspector General— Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Inspector General of the Department of Transportation shall initiate a review of the FAA’s August 2017 Flight Standards reorganization and its aviation safety inspection program.

Review— The review shall include an evaluation of—

Report— The Inspector General shall submit to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report on the results of its review and any recommendations to improve the aviation safety inspection program of the FAA.

In general— The Administrator shall conduct a study on the International Civil Aviation Organization’s best available technologies and standards.

Report to Congress— Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall submit to Congress a report containing the timeline for the Federal Aviation Administrator to adopt the best available technologies and standards studied under subsection (a) and, if the Administrator determines the Administrator will not adopt any such technologies or standards, a justification as to the reason for not adopting.

In general— Not later than 4 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the inspector general of the Department of Transportation shall conduct an audit of—

Report— Not later than 1 year after the publication of the results of the audit under subsection (a), the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall submit to the relevant committees of jurisdiction of Congress a report on the implementation plan for any recommendations from such audit and any reasons for not implementing any recommendation for which the Administrator will not implement.

Administrator— The term “Administrator” means the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Covered event— The term “covered event” means—

FAA— The term “FAA” means the Federal Aviation Administration.

Part 121 air carrier— The term “part 121 air carrier” means an air carrier that holds a certificate issued under part 121 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations.

Part 129 air carrier— The term “part 129 air carrier” means an air carrier that holds a certificate issued under part 129 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations.