CIVIL AVIATION ACT 1988
CIVIL AVIATION 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, 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, 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.
CASA raised AD/GENERAL/37 in 1966 to correct an unsafe situation on many aircraft types. Experience has shown that the emergency exits on aircraft need to be exercised on a regular basis to ensure that they will work properly when required. The AD has been amended on a number of occasions to address changing circumstances. Amendment 9 has been developed at the request of an Australian operator who pointed out that the last change to this AD (Amendment 8) imposed an additional and unnecessary burden on some operators. CASA agrees with this view, and has again amended the AD to fix this problem. The amended AD is AD/GENERAL/37 Amendment 9.
CASA has consulted informally with affected operators.
The Office of Regulatory Review has determined that ADs do not require a Regulatory Impact Statement.
The AD has been made by the Section Head Airframes, Airworthiness Standards Branch, Standards Division, on behalf of CASA, in accordance with subsection 84A (2) of the Civil Aviation Act 1988.