The new Congress is beginning with the introduction of bills potentially deleterious to the rotorcraft industry.
Last Monday, California Democrats Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Brad Sherman introduced the “Kobe and Gianna Bryant Helicopter Safety Act” that would mandate the installation of helicopter terrain awareness and warning systems (HTAWS) and flight recorders in all helicopters capable of carrying more than six passengers. The bill is named after the late basketball legend and his daughter, who, along with seven others, died in a high-profile crash of a Sikorsky S-76B north of Los Angeles last January.
While the NTSB investigation is ongoing, flight track data from the aircraft suggests that the pilot suffered spatial disorientation after entering IMC and lost control of the helicopter. Nevertheless, Sherman proclaimed, "The Kobe Bryant and Gianna Bryant Helicopter Safety Act will finally direct the FAA to require these safety features for passenger helicopters to avoid tragedies like the one that claimed the life of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna Bryant, and seven others.”
The bill also would mandate the installation of crash-resistant cockpit voice and flight data recorders in Part 29 helicopters, no matter if operated either privately under Part 91 or commercially under Part 135. Equipment would need to be installed within one to two years of related FAA rulemaking following enactment.
Separately, Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii) has reintroduced his “Safe and Quiet Skies Act” that would effectively end most heli-tourism in the U.S. Case’s bill would allow states, localities, and tribes to impose stricter regulations on tour flights in their jurisdictions, to include time, route, and frequency; require that tour flights fly above the 1,500 feet agl and be no louder than 55 dBA over occupied areas; prohibit pilots from acting as tour narrators; and ban flights over military installations, national cemeteries, national wilderness areas, national parks, and national wildlife refuges.