This week’s proposal from the FAA to mandate fleet-wide replacement of cockpit voice recorders (CVR) was met with concern from the National Air Transportation Association (NATA).

“We’ll certainly be taking a very close look at the FAA’s economic and small business impact analyses as well as the appropriateness of the 4-year compliance timeframe,” said NATA president James K. Coyne.

Areas of specific concern to NATA are the accuracy of the FAA’s cost estimates for equipment, labor and installation.

“Unfortunately, the FAA has a poor track record when it comes to accurately determining the cost of compliance for small businesses,” Coyne explained.

“But, we are pleased that the FAA has not sought to expand the CVR requirements to additional aircraft.”

The FAA Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would impact on-demand air carriers represented by NATA by mandating installation of an upgraded CVR that meets enhanced standards. The retrofitted CVRs must retain the last 2 hours of activity and utilize a solid-state recording mechanism. The retrofit requirement would apply only to those aircraft required to have a CVR under existing Part 135 regulations. Today, a CVR is required on multi-engine, turbine-powered airplanes and helicopters having a passenger-seating configuration of six or more and that are required to have two pilots.

FMI: www.nata-online.org