A rule that would mandate the installation of a supplementary physical barrier on flight decks on certain commercial aircraft operating in the US was suggested by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
According to the FAA, the extra barrier would guard against illegal access when the flight deck door is open.
“Flight crews keep us safe when we travel to visit loved ones, explore new places and conduct business. They, too, deserve to be protected, and this rulemaking is an important step forward,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.
According to data from the FAA, there were a total of 5,981 reports of unruly passengers in 2021 alone. Although these incidences have decreased since the US’s suspension of the mask mandate, the FAA still views risky passenger behavior as unacceptable.
The secondary flight deck barrier was put to the Biden Administration’s priority rulemaking list in 2021. The FAA gathered the suggestions used in the plan by collaborating with aircraft manufacturers, labor partners, and others in 2019 and 2020.
The proposal, signed on July 27, 2022, said that section 336, “Secondary Cockpit Barriers,” of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, Public Law 115-254 (Oct. 5, 2018), directs the Administrator of the FAA to issue an order requiring the installation of a secondary flight deck barrier on “each new aircraft that is manufactured for delivery to a passenger air carrier in the United States operating under the provisions of part 121 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations”.
After the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register, the public has 60 days to provide comments on it.
Why? Have there been numerous incursions through the current required Kevlar door, with secret digital access? Has this become a problem?