Thu, Oct 21, 2010
European Commission Demonstrates Support of Industry
Objections
The vote on the draft rules for EASA’s proposed Flight
Crew Licensing (FCL) has been delayed until mid-December. The
European Commission has expressed that it is not ready to support
the current draft rules because there is a risk that the EU and
United States may not have a mutual recognition procedure for FCL
rules in place before the entry into force of the new EASA FCL
rules, scheduled for April 2012.
On 6 October, the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA)
along with the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) and
the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) sent a letter to
the European Commission warning that the proposal to reverse a
long-standing reciprocal acceptance policy for pilots' credentials
between the EU and US could adversely impact safety. As proposed,
the rule would disallow pilots licenses and aircraft N-numbers used
in the EU from being obtained in the US or elsewhere, and would
instead require that both be obtained through European
authorities.
As stated in the industry’s letter:
"In the final draft of part-FCL there is no provision for the
conduct of Initial, Re-validation and Renewal of Class/Type ratings
outside the Territories of Member States. Currently some 4000 such
checks are conducted each year and, clearly provision must be made
for the over 300 examiners outside the EU, holding ICAO licenses
and appropriate Member State examiner approvals, to continue their
work.
"Without this, there will be a highly negative impact on the
safety of Business Aviation operations since, of course, many
European operators rely on simulator training conducted in Canada
or the US.
"Moreover, because so many European business aircraft are
manufactured in North America where the biggest Business Aviation
fleets are located, to expect the relocation of such activity to
Europe to comply with the new rules is completely unrealistic."
At a Committee meeting held on 14 October during which European
Member State representatives and the Commission discussed the
Flight Crew Licensing (FCL) proposal, the Commission insisted that
the vote be postponed until the end of this year in order to allow
more time to revise the proposal.
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