Cover Regulation

COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) 2015/640

of 23 April 2015

on additional airworthiness specifications for a given type of operations and amending Regulation (EU) No 965/2012

Regulation (EU) 2024/2954

1.This Regulation lays down common additional airworthiness specifications related to the continuing airworthiness and safety improvements of aircraft.

2.This Regulation applies to:

(a)operators of:

(i)aircraft registered in a Member State, unless and to the extent that the Member State has transferred its responsibilities pursuant to the Chicago Convention to a third country and the aircraft is operated by a third-country aircraft operator;

(ii)aircraft registered in a third country and operated by an aircraft operator established, residing or with a principal place of business in the territory to which the Treaties apply;

(b)holders of a type certificate, restricted type certificate, supplemental type certificate, design change approval, or repair design approval issued by the Agency in accordance with Commission Regulation (EU) No 748/2012⁴ or deemed to have been issued in accordance with Article 3 of that Regulation;

(c)the applicants for a type certificate or a restricted type certificate for a large aeroplane, for which the application was submitted before 1 January 2019 and are issued with the certificate after 26 August 2020 when specified in Annex I (Part-26).

Regulation (EU) 2024/2954

For the purposes of this Regulation,

(a)“maximum operational passenger seating configuration“ shall mean the maximum passenger seating capacity of an individual aircraft, excluding crew seats, established for operational purposes and specified in the operations manual.

(b)“large aeroplane” means an aeroplane that has the Certification Specifications for Large Aeroplanes “CS-25” or equivalent in its certification basis;

(ba)“small aeroplane” means an aeroplane that has the Certification Specifications for Normal-Category Aeroplanes “CS-23” or equivalent in its certification basis;

(c)“large helicopter” means a helicopter that has the Certification Specifications for Large Rotorcraft “CS-29” or equivalent in its certification basis;

(ca)“small helicopter” means a helicopter that has the Certification Specifications for Small Rotorcraft “CS-27” or equivalent in its certification basis;

(cb)“small category A helicopter” means a small helicopter that has all the characteristics of category A as defined in point (17) of Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 and has in its certification basis the additional specifications set out in the Certification Specifications for Large Rotorcraft (CS-29) that are applicable by virtue of the reference in Appendix C to CS-27, or equivalent;

(cc)“Substantiated sea conditions” means those sea conditions which were selected by the applicant for a type certificate or supplemental type certificate against which the resistance of the rotorcraft to capsize has been demonstrated and subsequently certified for ditching or emergency flotation provisions.

(d)“low-occupancy aeroplane” means an aeroplane that has a maximum operational passenger seating configuration of:

(1)up to and including 19 seats, or;

(2)up to and including one third of the maximum passenger seating capacity of the type-certified aeroplane, as indicated in the aeroplane type-certificate data sheet (TCDS), provided that both of the following conditions are met:

(a)the total number of passenger seats approved for occupancy during taxiing, take-off or landing does not exceed 100 per deck;

(b)the maximum operational passenger seating configuration during taxiing, take-off or landing in any individual zone between pairs of emergency exits (or any dead-end zone) does not exceed one third of the sum of the passenger seat allowances for the emergency exit pairs bounding that zone (using the passenger seat allowance for each emergency exit pairs as defined by the applicable certification basis of the aeroplane). For the purpose of determining compliance with this zonal limitation, in the case of an aeroplane that has deactivated emergency exits, it shall be assumed that all emergency exits are functional.

(e)“limit of validity” (LOV) means, in the context of the engineering data that supports the structural maintenance programme, a period of time, stated as a number of total accumulated flight cycles or flight hours or both, during which it is demonstrated that widespread fatigue damage will not occur in the aeroplane;

(f)“airworthiness limitation section” (ALS) means a section in the instructions for continued airworthiness, as required by points 21.A.61, 21.A.107 and 21.A.120A of Annex I (Part 21) to Regulation (EU) No 748/2012, that contains airworthiness limitations that set out each mandatory replacement time, inspection interval and related inspection procedure;

(g)“corrosion prevention and control programme” (“CPCP”) means a document reflecting a systematic approach to prevent and to control corrosion in an aeroplane’s primary structure, consisting of basic corrosion tasks, including inspections, areas subject to those tasks, defined corrosion levels and compliance times (implementation thresholds and repeat intervals);

(h)“widespread fatigue damage” (WFD) means a simultaneous presence of cracks at multiple locations in the structure of an aeroplane that are of such size and number that the structure will no longer meet the fail-safe strength or residual strength used for certification of that structure;

(i)“baseline structure” means the structure that is designed under the type certificate or restricted type certificate for that aeroplane model (that is, the “as delivered aeroplane model configuration”);

(j)“fatigue-critical baseline structure” (“FCBS”) means the baseline structure of an aeroplane that is classified by the type-certificate or restricted type-certificate holder as a fatigue-critical structure;

(k)“fatigue-critical modified structure” (FCMS) means any fatigue critical structure of an aeroplane introduced or affected by a change to its type design and that is not already listed as part of the fatigue-critical baseline structure;

(l)“damage tolerance evaluation” (DTE) is a process that leads to a determination of maintenance actions necessary to detect or preclude fatigue cracking that could contribute to a catastrophic failure. When applied to repairs and changes, a DTE includes the evaluation of the repair or change and the fatigue critical structure affected by the repair or change;

(m)“damage tolerance inspection” (DTI) means a documented inspection requirement or any other maintenance action developed by holders of a type certificate, restricted type certificate, supplemental type certificate or existing major change approval as specified in Annex I (Part-26) as a result of a damage tolerance evaluation, including the areas to be inspected, the inspection method, the inspection procedures (including the sequential inspection steps and acceptance and rejection criteria), the inspection threshold and any repetitive intervals associated with those inspections and also, where appropriate, specification of maintenance actions such as replacement, repair or change;

(n)“repair evaluation guideline” (“REG”) means a process and implementation schedule for conducting surveys established by the type-certificate or restricted type-certificate holder for repairs that affect fatigue-critical structures to ensure the continued structural integrity of all relevant repairs, as specified in point 26.309 of Annex I (Part-26);

(o)“fatigue-critical structure” (FCS) means a structure of an aeroplane that is susceptible to fatigue cracking that could lead to a catastrophic failure of the aeroplane.

Regulation (EU) 2015/640

Annex III to Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 is amended in accordance with Annex II to this Regulation, in order to contain a reference to this Regulation.

[Note from the editor: Article 4 was created with the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2015/640 to include a link to Part26 in Regulation (EU) No 965/2012. In the meantime, Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 has been further amended. Article 4 is therefore no longer relevant.]

Regulation (EU) 2015/640

Aircraft for which operators demonstrated to their competent authority compliance with JAR-26 'Additional Airworthiness Requirements for Operations' (hereinafter 'JAR-26 requirements'), issued by the Joint Aviation Authorities on 13 July 1998, as amended by the Amendment 3 of 1 December 2005, before the dates of application referred to in Article 6 shall be deemed to comply with the equivalent specifications set out in Annex I to this Regulation.

Aircraft for which compliance with the JAR-26 requirements equivalent to the specifications set out in points 26.50, 26.105, 26.110, 26.120, 26.150, 26.155, 26.160, 26.200, 26.250 of Annex I to this Regulation has been demonstrated in accordance with the first subparagraph shall subsequently not be modified in a way that would affect its compliance with the JAR-26 requirements concerned.

Regulation (EU) 2015/640

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply from 14 May 2015.

However, points 26.50, 26.105, 26.110, 26.120, 26.150, 26.155, 26.160, 26.200, 26.250 of Annex I shall apply from 14 May 2017.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.