Aircraft Safety Improvement Act of 2020

Aircraft Safety Improvement Act of 2020

This bill addresses the aircraft certification process of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Among other requirements, the FAA must

• conduct a rulemaking proceeding to require aircraft manufacturers that hold both a type certificate and a production certificate, where the United States is the State of Design and State of Manufacture, to have in place a safety management system that is consistent with the standards established by the International Civil Aviation Organization for such systems;
• develop best practices for Organization Designation Authorizations (ODA's), including requiring such practices to be incorporated into each ODA holder's approved procedures manual;
• initiate a review of its existing regulations and policies to integrate and emphasize human factors and human system integration, particularly those related to pilot and aircraft interfaces;
• develop a research plan to address the integration of human factors in the design and certification of transport category aircraft;
• revise existing policies for manufacturers of large transport category airplanes that are expected to be operated for passenger air transportation to ensure that pilot operational evaluations for airplanes that are in the process of being certified use pilots from foreign and domestic air carriers; and
• review its own aircraft certification expertise to determine whether it has the expertise and capability to adequately understand the safety implications of, and oversee the adoption of, new or innovative technologies, materials, and procedures that designers and manufacturers of aircraft may adopt or introduce.