Edition 45, June 2007

CASA gives passengers highest priority

A new Civil Aviation Safety Authority policy will ensure that aviation operations carrying passengers are given the highest safety priority, standards and regulatory oversight.

The Industry sector priorities and classification of civil aviation activities policy allocates the bulk of CASA resources to passenger flights, including safety audits and surveillance. It prioritises passenger transport because people on these flights are not expected to know about or control safety and rely on the aviation industry and the Authority to manage it for them.

For the purposes of safety regulation, the policy creates three classes of aviation:

  • passenger transport - flights carrying people in large or small aircraft, scheduled or non-scheduled (previously described as regular public transport and charter flights)
  • aerial work - specialised aviation activities, including emergency and medical flights, law enforcement, aerial agriculture and aerial survey which may carry people who are not crew (known as task specialists)
  • general and freight-only - private operations, flying training, freight and other activities where only the crew is on board, along with people flying on aircraft where the level of safety provided is known and accepted, for example recreational and sports aviation.

People flying on aircraft operating in the aerial work class have assigned in-flight duties and are generally knowledgeable about flight safety, placing them lower on the safety hierarchy, while those flying in the general and freight-only class are actively involved as pilots, crew or participants who appreciate the relevant issues.

The policy will be implemented as the Civil Aviation Safety Authority issues new civil aviation safety regulations. Until the new regulations are in place, all current regulatory requirements continue to apply.

For more information visit casa.gov.au/newrules/admin/class/index.htm

This page was generated on 14 January, 2010

Tag cloud Tags: Civil Aviation Safety Authority,aviation. Click here to view the tag cloud.