Airports are directed to install new tools to avoid plane crashes on runways, federal aviation authorities have a goal to hire thousands of new air traffic controllers and passengers will more easily get refunds if their flights are delayed under a new law.
Congress included several portions in the law specific to New Jersey, including the requirement for a federal study about expanding access for “lower cost passenger carriers at capacity constrained” airports, in particular Newark Liberty International Airport and John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports in New York.
A provision from Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-11th) about aerial balloons was also included, and amendments Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5th) filed to add “secondary cockpit barriers” to aircraft and to study flight delays in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut made it into the final text.
Those and hundreds of other elements are contained in a bill (HR 3935) President Joe Biden signed into law Thursday following months of negotiation.
The law contains no funding but sets down policies and procedures for the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, an independent agency that investigates crashes, spills and accidents, for the next five years.
Boat fires
The House last week also passed a separate bill (HR 7659) to authorize the U.S. Coast Guard, which has a base and training center in Cape May, for two years.
Included in the Coast Guard legislation, which must now pass the Senate, is a Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8th) bill that requires an independent federal study of boat fires, like the blaze that killed two Newark firefighters last summer.
In a phone interview, Menendez said that topic was a priority “in direct response to the tragedy that happened in the district.” The bill (HR 7702) directs the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, to file a report to Congress about the causes, damages and responses to vessel fires.
Menendez, one of the three New Jersey lawmakers who sit on the primary House committee that oversees transportation issues, said increasing the number of air traffic controllers in the country and streamlining the airspace in northern New Jersey stood out as critical issues during negotiations of the new aviation law.
“That was a priority for the entire industry,” Menendez said of managing the busy air in the New Jersey-New York region. “We have a high-demand, complicated area.”
More low-cost airlines at Newark?
Lawmakers directed the GAO, a nonpartisan and investigative arm of Congress, to study how to expand access for “lower cost” airlines at the Newark airport, as well as JFK and LaGuardia.
The GAO is also tasked under the law to study flight delays in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. Congress also directed the FAA to close the gap of roughly 3,000 air traffic controllers by hiring as many people as possible. And it named an FAA facility near Atlantic City as a long-term federal site for aerospace research, including for drones, a focus of Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-2nd), who represents the district.
The aviation law calls for the FAA to install warning systems on airport runways to help avoid so-called near-miss incidents.
Like Menendez and Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-7th), Van Drew sits on the House transportation committee.
Because Congress has approved the FAA’s operations in recent years in a herky-jerky manner, the hiring and training of air traffic controllers has been stunted, according to a safety report released last year.
Safety provisions
Folded into the new aviation law are several provisions on cockpit and crash safety.
One calls for the FAA to install warning systems on airport runways to help avoid so-called near-miss incidents — when planes come perilously close to colliding.
One such incident occurred at Newark airport a decade ago, when a United Airlines jet came within 400 feet of smashing into a small jet on the ground.
The law includes a requirement that passengers receive refunds if domestic or international flights are delayed more than three or six hours, respectively.
Separately, Gottheimer secured in the law a requirement that commercial aircraft be outfitted with additional cockpit barriers — typically lockable metal gates with rods, bars or other hard materials.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the FAA required cockpit doors be hardened against intrusion and small guns. But the addition of secondary barriers, which largely serve to block someone from entering the cockpit during a rare in-flight moment when the cockpit door is open, such as for a bathroom visit or food service, has not been carried out.
“This amendment is a critical step to help prevent 9/11 from ever happening again,” Gottheimer said in a statement.
Tracking balloons
Legislation of Sherrill’s that directs the Pentagon and the FAA to coordinate their efforts to track balloons floating in U.S. airspace is in the law, too.
Military jets shot down a balloon U.S. officials said was a Chinese government spy tool in February 2023.
Steps to rein in helicopter and flight noise, a focus of Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8th) and other north Jersey members, didn’t make the cut.
Other elements to the aviation law include a requirement that passengers receive refunds if domestic or international flights are delayed more than three or six hours, respectively, and a rule to lengthen the capacity of voice recorders in cockpits to 25 hours from two hours for commercial planes.
Crash investigators often struggle to gather all the information possible from cockpit audio recordings after a crash because the audio files have been overwritten.
Menendez said he was pleased measures to protect flight attendants were folded into the law, especially after the “huge spike” in unruly passenger behavior during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A first for airport workers
Mary Kay Henry, international president of the Service Employees International Union, SEIU, said the law marked the first time Congress has acknowledge airport service workers in authorizing the FAA.
Henry, whose union represents more than 40,000 workers at airports, said the law also includes policies on airport ramp worker safety and wheelchair-bound passengers.
“Airport service workers have long served as the lifeblood of the aviation economy, operating largely behind the scenes to make air travel possible by cleaning planes, hauling baggage, escorting passengers, securing our airports, and more,” Henry said in a statement. “Yet, despite the frontline roles they play in every single airport, service workers have never been included in an FAA reauthorization package.”
Congressional Republicans cheered a portion in the law banning the FAA from requiring passengers to wear face masks or get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.
Steps to rein in helicopter and flight noise, a focus of Menendez and other north Jersey members, didn’t make the cut.
“That’s an issue that we continue to hear from constituents about,” he said. “Helicopter noise,” he said. “We’re going to continue to plug away at that.”
Scientists have linked traffic noise to an increased risk of dementia, in particular Alzheimer’s disease.