CASA: no change to regs
The Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has responded to feedback from the aviation and general community about proposed changes to safety requirements for community service flights
The Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has responded to feedback from the aviation and general community about proposed changes to safety requirements for community service flights.
CASA has announced that it will not pursue the option of requiring community service flights to be operated under the authority of a self-administering organisation. This follows an analysis of the responses to a discussion paper issued in 2014 on the most appropriate safety standards for charity flights.
In the discussion paper, CASA indicated preliminary support for an option requiring that community service flights be conducted within the rules of a CASA approved self-administration organisation. However, responses to the paper opposed this option for a number of reasons including cost and complexity.
CASA’s director of aviation safety Mark Skidmore said that at present, the guidelines and practices used by community service flight organisations such as Angel Flight are sufficient: “We have listened to the feedback to CASA’s preferred option and we accept this is not the way to proceed. CASA is not proposing any changes to the existing regulatory requirements for community service flights at this time. That does not mean we have stopped looking at this issue completely as the discussion paper put forward 10 options – including doing nothing, passenger briefings and additional pilot training and checking. If CASA does propose to explore any of these options further, there will be additional consultation with the aviation community and the public before any changes are implemented. CASA recognises the importance of community service operations such as Angel Flight to rural and regional Australia. Given the community clearly values the benefits of these flights, CASA will not take any action that unnecessarily limits their ability to operate.”