EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Civil Aviation Regulations
Directions under subregulation 235 (7)
Subsection 98 (1) of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 empowers the Governor-General to make regulations.
Regulation 5A of the Civil Aviation Regulations provides that a direction that has the effect of repealing, amending, or otherwise affecting the operation of, anything in a Civil Aviation Order is a disallowable instrument for the purposes of section 46A of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901.
Subregulation 235 (7) of the Regulations provides that the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) may, for the purpose of ensuring the safety of air navigation, give directions with respect to the method of loading persons and goods (including fuel) on aircraft.
Section 20.9, subsection 4 of the Civil Aviation Orders sets out CASA’s directions in relation to the loading of fuel on aircraft. The requirements set out in that subsection in relation to loading fuel on aircraft with less than 20 passenger seats while passengers are on board are inappropriate for certain aircraft operated by the Royal Flying Doctor Service in New South Wales (RFDS). Those requirements would mean that ill patients on board any of those aircraft would have to be removed from it before it could be refuelled. In the interests of safety, CASA has decided to issue separate directions in relation to loading fuel on certain aircraft operated by RFDS while passengers are on board. These directions will apply in place of those set out in section 20.9, subsection 4 of the Orders.
The directions impose requirements necessary to ensure safety when fuel is loaded on an aircraft with passengers aboard. The requirements relate to information to be given to passengers who are able to understand the information, the behaviour of the passengers, the location of the aircraft’s operating crew and medical crew while the fuel is loaded, connection of the aircraft and the fuelling equipment to an earth point and preparation for the possibility of an evacuation of the aircraft.
CASA considers that the directions are not detrimental to the safety of air navigation in general.
The directions have been given by a delegate of CASA.
The directions took effect on gazettal.