CASA 08/23 – Directions – TRAs and TDAs outside Australian Territory – Instrument 2023 (No. 1) (Cth)

Instrument number CASA 08/23

I, PHILIPPA JILLIAN SPENCE, Director of Aviation Safety, on behalf of CASA, make this instrument under regulation 11.245 of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998.

[Signed P. Spence]

Pip Spence
Director of Aviation Safety

16 February 2023

CASA 08/23 – Directions – TRAs and TDAs outside Australian Territory – Instrument 2023 (No. 1)

1          Name

                 This instrument is CASA 08/23 – Directions – TRAs and TDAs outside Australian Territory – Instrument 2023 (No. 1).

2          Duration

                 This instrument:

(a)   commences on the day after it is registered; and

(b)   is repealed at the end of 30 November 2023.

3          Definitions

                 In this instrument:

AsR means the Airspace Regulations 2007.

ATS means air traffic services.

Australian-administered airspace means airspace that has been allocated to Australia by ICAO under the Chicago Convention and for which Australia has accepted responsibility.

Note   Australian-administered airspace includes the airspace over Australian territory and the ICAO-allocated airspace that is outside Australian territory.

Australian territory means:

(a)   the territory of Australia and of every external Territory; and

(b)   the territorial sea of Australia and of every external Territory; and

(c)   the airspace over any such territory or sea.

CASR means the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998.

OAR means the Office of Airspace Regulation in CASA.

TDA means temporary danger area.

TRA means temporary restricted area.

4          Directions for temporary restricted areas and temporary danger areas outside Australian territory

                 Australian-registered aircraft

                 If an instrument (a TRA or TDA instrument):

(a)   issued by OAR; and

(b)   expressed as made under either or both of regulations 6 and 9 of the AsR;

                 purports to create 1 or more temporary restricted areas or temporary danger areas in Australian-administered airspace outside Australian territory (an external TRA or TDA), then the operator of an Australian-registered aircraft must comply with the requirements of the TRA or TDA instrument and its conditions (if any) as if they applied to the operator while the aircraft is in the external TRA or TDA.

Note 1   This section applies whether or not the TRA or TDA instrument also creates temporary restricted areas or temporary danger areas inside Australian territory. Such instruments for temporary areas inside Australian territory are separately valid and enforceable as applicable under section 15A of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (being non-legislative instruments), and regulations 6 and 16 of the AsR.

Note 2   It is an offence under regulation 11.255 of CASR to contravene the direction in section 4.

Note 3   Foreign registered aircraft

There is no requirement for a separate subsection to deal with foreign registered aircraft.

If a TRA or TDA instrument creates a TRA or TDA inside Australian territory, then the instrument applies to foreign registered aircraft by force of section 6 of the AsR.

If a TRA or TDA instrument purports to create 1 or more temporary restricted areas or temporary danger areas in Australian-administered airspace outside Australian territory (an external TRA or TDA) under the Chicago Convention, as applied by subregulation 3(3) of the Civil Aviation Regulations 1988, the direction instrument has no application to foreign registered aircraft. For an external TRA or TDA as applied by the direction instrument, the operator of a foreign registered aircraft is not required to comply with the requirements (if any) of the instrument while the aircraft is in the external TRA or TDA. However, CASA strongly recommends that such operators should comply in the interests of aviation safety, given that the relevant reasons for the declaration of the external TRA or TDA may constitute a threat to aviation safety.

Note 4   TDA instruments are advisory warning instruments and do not restrict flight in any airspace for any aircraft. However, CASA strongly recommends that all operators should comply with any requirements or advice in a TDA instrument in the interests of aviation safety, given that the relevant reasons for the declaration of the TDA may constitute a threat to aviation safety.

5          Direction – Airservices Australia – Air Traffic and Aeronautical Information Services

                 For aircraft operating in, or in the airspace adjacent to, an external TRA or TDA of a kind mentioned in section 4, Airservices Australia must, as far as practical, provide ATS and aeronautical information services in accordance with the conditions (if any) expressed in the TRA or TDA instrument that is for the area, as if the area were a declared restricted area or a declared danger area (as applicable).