EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
CIVIL AVIATION ACT 1988
CIVIL AVIATION REGULATIONS
REQUIREMENT FOR A PROVING TEST UNDER
SUBREGULATION 222 (1)
Subsection 98 (1) of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of the Act and in the interests of the safety of air navigation.
Under regulation 5 of the Civil Aviation Regulations (the Regulations), if CASA is empowered or required to issue any direction, instruction or notification or to give any permission, approval or authority, CASA may, subject to any contrary intention, issue the direction or notification or give the permission, approval or authority in Civil Aviation Orders (CAOs) or otherwise in writing. Under regulation 5A of the Regulations, if CASA has issued a CAO and CASA issues a later direction, instruction, notification, permission, approval or authority that is not a CAO and that in any way affects the operation of the CAO, the later document is a disallowable instrument for the purposes of section 46A of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901.
Subregulation 222 (1) of the Regulations provides that a new type of aircraft must not be used to carry passengers in a public transport service unless it has passed proving tests in accordance with CASA’s requirements.
Paragraph 15.1 of section 20.11 of the Civil Aviation Orders (the Orders) sets out CASA’s proving test requirements in relation to emergency evacuation demonstrations. Under subparagraph 15.1.3 of section 20.11, an emergency evacuation demonstration is not required if such a demonstration was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the United States Federal Aviation Regulations and, among other things, a CASA-appointed observer was present at the demonstration and was satisfied with the outcome. Two BAe 146-200 aircraft are about to be registered in Australia by Southern Australia Airlines Pty Ltd. CASA is not aware if such an observer was present when the relevant demonstration for the BAe 146-200 aircraft was carried out in June 1983.
The configuration of the BAe 146-200 aircraft on which the certification evacuation demonstration was carried out had a different internal configuration to the aircraft which Southern Australia Airlines Pty Ltd proposes to operate. The changes to the configuration of the Southern Australia BAe 146 aircraft are such, however, that they are considered to assist in the swift evacuation of persons from the aircraft in case of an emergency. Moreover, the internal configuration of the aircraft to be flown by Southern Australia Airlines Pty Ltd is the same as that in other BAe 146 aircraft already in use in Australia.
CASA is conscious of the high risk of injury to participants in emergency evacuation demonstrations. In these circumstances, CASA considers that safety will not be compromised if only the proving test now ordered is undertaken rather than requiring the aircraft to undergo the full emergency evacuation demonstrations. Accordingly, CASA has set out proving test requirements in relation to these new aircraft in place of the requirements specified in paragraph 15.1 of section 20.11 of the Orders.
The test must be conducted in accordance with the requirements set out in Appendix I of section 20.11 of the Orders, other than those requirements that relate to the evacuation of passengers.
The direction has been issued by the District Flight Operations Manager, Melbourne, as a delegate of CASA.
The direction took effect on gazettal.