CIVIL AVIATION ACT 1988
CIVIL AVIATION SAFETY REGULATIONS 1998
ISSUE OF AIRWORTHINESS DIRECTIVE
Under section 98 of the Civil Aviation Act 1988, the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of the Act and in the interests of the safety of air navigation. Under regulation 39.001 of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) may issue airworthiness directives (ADs) for kinds of aircraft or aeronautical products. Subregulation 39.001(5) of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998 provides that an AD is a disallowable instrument for the purposes of section 46A of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901. Therefore, in accordance with section 6 of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003, an AD is a legislative instrument.
Under Annex 8 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, the State of Design has overall responsibility for continuing airworthiness of an aircraft type, and must provide any information necessary to ensure the continuing airworthiness of a type to appropriate States of Registry. ADs (and their equivalents) are the most common form of continuing airworthiness information, and are issued by most ICAO Contracting States.
The State of Registry of an individual aircraft is responsible for its continuing airworthiness. Under Annex 8, the State of Registry must develop or adopt requirements to ensure the continuing airworthiness of aircraft. When a State of Design issues an AD against a type of aircraft on the Australian Register, or likely to be on the Australian register, CASA, as Australia’s national airworthiness authority, must assess that information and, if appropriate, issue an Australian AD to mandate the requirements of the State of Design.
In 1996 the French Direction-Generale de l’Aviation Civile (DGAC) issued AD
1996-294(B) to mandate periodic inspection of the main landing gear of Avions de Transport Regional ATR 42 aeroplanes. France is the State-of-Design of the ATR 42 aeroplane. MESSIER-DOWTY issued Service Bulletin (SB) No. 631-32-145 to allow the periodic inspections to be terminated. The DGAC amended AD
1996-294(B) to make it mandatory that SB No. 631-32-145 be carried out eventually on all affected aeroplanes. CASA has decided to issue AD/ATR 42/28 to mandate SB 631-32-145. AD/ATR 42/28 will become effective on 20 May 2011 and will give affected operators until 20 June 2011 to incorporate SB No. 631-32-145.
As this AD is issued because of Australia’s obligations under Convention on International Civil Aviation, and because it is issued in response to a number of ADs raised by the relevant State of Design, no consultation of the Australian public has taken place on this AD. The Office of Best Practice Regulation has determined that ADs do not require a Regulatory Impact Statement.
The AD has been made by the Manager, Continuing Airworthiness in the Airworthiness and Engineering Branch, on behalf of CASA, in accordance with subsection 94 (1) of the Act.