The US House Transportation Committee has approved a contentious bill that would impose new conditions on how the Federal Aviation Administration oversees non-US aircraft repair stations.
The US House Transportation Committee has approved a contentious bill that would impose new conditions on how the Federal Aviation Administration oversees non-US aircraft repair stations.
The bill, called the “Safe Aircraft Maintenance Standards Act”, would also require the FAA to create a database where airlines would upload heavy maintenance data.
The US aviation maintenance industry has already come out strongly against the bill, which may have caught industry a bit by surprise. The group says the bill would threaten business health and make US companies less competitive.
The FAA says it does not comment about pending legislation.
The committee passed the bill on 20 November. It now moves to a full House vote, possibly next week.
Still unclear is whether the committee made any last minute tweaks to the bill. But as originally written, the bill would require that the FAA conduct unannounced safety inspections of foreign repair stations annually.
It would mandate that supervisors and mechanics at those stations be certificated under FAA regulations as a condition of working on US aircraft. Those workers would need technical fluency in English and complete FAA testing.
It would also require the FAA to create the heavy maintenance database, and airlines would be mandated to “disclose the maintenance history of their aircraft fleets, specifically the location and data an aircraft underwent heavy maintenance”, says a release from lawmaker John Garamendi, who sponsored that provision.
“We’re at an unfortunate moment in our aviation system’s history where safety standards are being questioned, and the bottom line is, safety has to be the number one priority,” says committee chair Peter DeFazio, who sponsored the bill, in a statement. “For years I’ve pressed FAA officials to heed the warnings from its own Inspector General and to do more to close the gap between our safety standards and those of foreign repair stations.”
Lobby group Aeronautical Repair Station Association calls the measure “policymaking at its worst” and a “political bill that will disrupt international travel”.
ARSA also says lawmakers sprung the bill on industry. “It was introduced late last week and passed in five days without any hearings or opportunity for industry to comment”.
The group thinks such legislation would threaten the FAA-certificated status of non-US repair stations, potentially hurting US airlines that rely on those stations.
It would also limit the ability of US companies from establishing oversees facilities, and could lead other countries’ regulators to hit US companies operating overseas with similar measures, ARSA says.
“This legislation is unnecessary given existing federal regulations and the scrutiny repair stations already receive from US and foreign regulators, customers, and third-party accrediting bodies,” says ARSA.
Airline group Airlines for America (A4A) opposes the bill, saying in a statement it would “threaten US jobs, hurt international air travel and weaken the competitiveness of the US aerospace industry”.
The group calls the bill’s provisions “onerous” and unnecessary considering existing oversight.
“The aviation industry is prepared to work with Congress on constructive alternatives to advance safety and improve the global oversight framework for repair and maintenance facilities,” says A4A.
Story updated on 21 November to include comments from Airlines for America, in the preceding three paragraphs.
