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49 U.S.C. § 44746

Title 49 Chapter 447 Current through PL 119-73 Last updated: March 29, 2026 View on OLRC →
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§ 44746. Flight data recovery from overwater operations

  • (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.

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