Maintaining aviation safety and cutting out financial opportunists in the form of airports is the driving factor of legislation pending in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., and Rep. Robert Onder, R-Mo., are shepherding bicameral efforts along with Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., to stop what they call abuse of a safety technology more accurate than radar. The Pilot and Aircraft Privacy Act, known also as Senate Bill 2175 and House Resolution 4146, would limit use of the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast and require enhanced transparency in airport fees for general aviation aircraft.
The congressmen say the technology is used in some airports “for the purposes of assessing landing fees and collecting revenue from pilots.” The technology identifies the aircraft, airspeed, heading and altitude and is used by air traffic controllers. They say it has helped avoid a number of collisions in the air.
“Abusing this technology to levy unfair, sometimes duplicative fees and threatening pilots with legal action will keep some general aviation pilots grounded, which is a loss for America’s economy, emergency response, and the aviation community at large,” Budd said.
Pilots sometimes do not use it for these reasons.
“Unfortunately, some third parties have taken advantage of this data to impose and collect exorbitant third-party landing fees and frivolous lawsuits targeted at general aviation pilots and travelers,” Onder said. “These uses of data for purposes other than air traffic safety act as a deterrent for pilots to equip their aircraft with this potentially life-saving technology.”
The bill says fees or charges using the ADS-B data is prohibited by government agencies and private entities. It says the date can be used by air traffic controllers for safety, efficiency or other purposes as approved by the Transportation Department secretary. Investigations cannot be originated on the data. And financial information and impact are protected.
