EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
CIVIL AVIATION ACT 1988
CIVIL AVIATION REGULATIONS 1988
EXEMPTION UNDER SUBREGULATION 235 (11) RELATING TO LOADING OF FUEL ON CERTAIN AIRCRAFT USED BY THE ROYAL FLYING DOCTOR SERVICE
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 subregulation 235 (11) of the Civil Aviation Regulations 1988 (CAR 1988), CASA may exempt an aircraft from any of the requirements imposed by regulation 235. Subregulation 235 (7) of CAR 1988 provides that CASA may, for the purposes of ensuring the safety of air navigation, give directions with respect to the method of loading persons and goods (including fuel) on aircraft.
Subsection 4 of section 20.9 of the Civil Aviation Orders (CAOs) is made under subregulation 235 (7) and sets out CASA’s directions in relation to the loading of fuel on aircraft. Paragraph 4.2 of subsection 4 sets out requirements, regarding the loading of fuel on aircraft with less than 20 passenger seats while passengers are on board the aircraft, which are inappropriate for certain aircraft operated by the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia (Central Operations) Incorporated (Aviation Reference Number 038517) (RFDS). To comply with the requirements, critically ill patients on board an aircraft would have to be taken off the aircraft before it could be refuelled. CASA does not consider that such action is necessary to ensure the safety of air navigation.
CASA has therefore issued an exemption from paragraph 4.2 for the fuelling of certain RFDS aircraft while passengers are on board, subject to conditions. For example, the operator must ensure that when fuel is being loaded no passenger is on board unless the requirements set out in Schedule 2 are met. The requirements include the information to be given prior to fuelling to passengers who are capable of understanding, the location of the aircraft’s operating crew and medical staff while fuel is being loaded and connection of the aircraft and fuelling equipment to an earth point while fuel is being loaded.
Under regulation 5A of CAR 1988, if CASA has issued a Civil Aviation Order (CAO) and then issues an exemption that has the effect of repealing, amending or affecting the operation of anything in the CAO, the exemption is a disallowable instrument for the purposes of section 46A of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901.
The exemption has been issued by a delegate of CASA appointed under regulation 7 of CAR 1988.
The exemption took effect on gazettal and stops having effect at the end of July 2006.
[Instrument number CASA EX16/2003]