FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Thursday, January 29, 1998
Contact: Bill Mosley
Tel.: (202) 366-5571
DOT 17-98
FOREIGN
CARRIERS TO SUBMIT
FAMILY ASSISTANCE PLANS
Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman James E. Hall today sent a letter to 317 foreign air carriers reminding them of their responsibility to submit a plan for addressing the needs of families of passengers involved in an aircraft accident.
The Foreign Air Carrier Family Support Act, signed into law by President Clinton on Dec. 16, 1997, requires foreign carriers to file no later than June 15, 1998 a plan for addressing the needs of families of victims of an aviation disaster in the United States. The Task Force on Assistance to Families of Aviation Disasters, co-chaired by Secretary Slater and Chairman Hall, unanimously supported the adoption of the legislation.
"Many U.S. citizens, and travelers associated with U.S. citizens, fly on foreign air carriers to and from the United States," Slater and Hall wrote to Delegate Robert A. Underwood of Guam, the original sponsor of the legislation. "Accordingly, foreign air carriers should be fully prepared in the event of a disaster to provide care and assistance to their loved ones."
The letter being sent today by Secretary Slater and Chairman Hall informs the foreign carriers of their legal obligations and provides them with information on the steps necessary to file plans with both the Department of Transportation and the NTSB.
The law extended to foreign carriers the same requirements applicable to U.S. carriers in the Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act of 1996. A total of 166 U.S. carriers have filed family assistance plans under that act.
The 1996 law excluded U.S. air taxis from the need to file plans, but the foreign-carrier law made no distinction as to aircraft size, technically requiring all foreign carriers, including those operating only small, air taxi-sized aircraft, to file plans. As the clear intent of the foreign-carrier law was to mirror the requirements applicable to U.S. carriers, the department today issued an order exempting foreign small-aircraft operators from the requirement to file plans, removing an unintended and inappropriate burden from these operators.
A copy of the letter and order is available on the DOT website at http://www.dot.gov/affairs/taskforce/.
###