Washington, DC – Representative Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Rick Larsen (D-WA) applauded passage of the NOTAM Improvement Act of 2023.
“This winter’s NOTAM outage, which caused mass flight cancellations and delays, demonstrated the need to invest in technology to maintain America’s gold standard in aviation safety and reliably get Americans where they need to be,” Ranking Member Larsen said. “This bipartisan bill will strengthen the integrity of the NOTAM system to provide relevant and timely updates to pilots and flight crews while ensuring the stability, resilience and security of our aviation IT system.”
“Since the near-miss incident at San Francisco International Airport in 2017, caused in part by the outdated NOTAM system, I have been working to improve aviation safety for both the workforce and the flying public, and am proud to see this bill passed in a bipartisan manner,” Representative DeSaulnier said. “The NOTAM Improvement Act, and the task force that it creates, will play an important role in the FAA’s ongoing NOTAM modernization initiative, which should be an important part of our ongoing conversations as we address and improve all aspects of aviation safety.”
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Rep. DeSaulnier Effort to Increase Aviation Safety and Efficiency Passes in House
Specifically, this bill would establish a task force under the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to review and provide recommendations to update and improve aviation safety notifications to pilots and prevent failures of the notice to air missions (NOTAM) system, like the one that occurred earlier this month causing thousands of cancelled and delayed flights. The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 424-to-4.
Specifically, the NOTAM Improvement Act would create the FAA Task Force on NOTAM Improvement to:
- Review existing methods for presenting NOTAMs and flight information to pilots;
- Review regulations and policies related to NOTAMs, including their content and presentation to pilots;
- Evaluate and determine best practices to organize, prioritize, and present flight operations information in a manner that optimizes pilot review and retention of relevant information;
- Provide recommendations to improve the presentations of NOTAM information and ensure its stability and cybersecurity; and
- Report to Congress on its review and evaluations.
Congressman DeSaulnier is a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure where he has served on the Aviation Subcommittee. As part of his ongoing effort to improve aviation safety, Congressman DeSaulnier also authored the Safe Landings Act (H.R. 6976) to help avoid near-miss aircraft incidents like the one that occurred at San Francisco International Airport in July of 2017. — Full Story
1 comment
All this ballyhooed bill does is commission studies and reports – standard Washington practice and nothing the FAA can’t do with this legislation.
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