Recommends Installation Of Flight Recorders On All Such Aircraft

Although the EU Airworthiness and Environmental Certification and Air Operations requirements do not require installation of flight recorders on all small rotorcraft, EASA recognises the potential safety enhancement that can be achieved through this equipment.

A flight recorder may be crash-protected or lightweight. Crash-protected flight recorders are capable of withstanding very severe crash conditions, such as those encountered during some accidents of large aeroplanes and large helicopters. Lightweight flight recorders are usually designed to meet less demanding requirements than crash-protected flight recorders, which allows them to be lighter.

At the moment the following standards are available and accepted by EASA: EUROCAE Document ED-112 (Minimum Operational Performance Specification for Crash Protected Airborne Recorder Systems) dated March 2003.

EUROCAE Document ED-155 (Minimum Operational Performance Specification for Lightweight Flight Recording Systems) dated July 2009.

For recording equipment that does not entirely meet these standards, the recommendations of this SIB can also apply.

The flight data (e.g. time, flight parameters, attitude, alarms, pilot controls input, audio, inertial acceleration) that can be recorded through the flight recorders is highly beneficial for the following safety aspects:

operational fleet management, including training, troubleshooting, data analysis and risk assessment within the (Safety) Management System
accident/incident investigation.

EASA recommends all owners and operators of small rotorcraft, registered in the EASA member states, to consider installing a flight data recorder and keep this serviceable through the applicable equipment manufacturer’s maintenance instructions.

Additionally, EASA recommends affected TC and STC holders to include installation of a flight recorder as part of the basic rotorcraft configuration or as an option for in-service retrofit, and to timely provide the affected operators with maintenance instructions in order to keep the equipment serviceable.

(Source: EASA. Image from file)

FMI: www.easa.europa.eu