Opinion of the European Aviation Safety Agency for a Regulation amending Commission Regulation (EC) No 2042/2003 of 20 November 2003 on the continuing airworthiness of aircraft and aeronautical products, parts and appliances, and on the approval of organisations and personnel involved in these tasks
As part of continuing airworthiness oversight, competent authorities are required to develop a survey programme to monitor the airworthiness status of the fleet of aircraft on their register, referred to as ‘Aircraft Continuing Airworthiness Monitoring’ (ACAM, cf. M.B.303). The survey programme shall be developed by selecting a relevant sample of aircraft and shall include an aircraft survey, focusing on a number of key risk elements.
Feedback from competent authorities and typical findings encountered during standardisation inspections indicate that ACAM requirements and key risk elements are not consistently and uniformly applied in all member states. The existing rule material and in particular related Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) and Guidance Material (GM) have been reviewed to propose changes that will improve clarity and consistency, as well as to include additional guidance on the use of Key Risk Elements (KREs). Main deliverables of this rulemaking task are in the form of additional AMC and GM which focus on more flexible, risk-based planning of inspections, the possibility to conduct combined surveys, clarification of the scope and different types of surveys and in particular prove detailed guidance on key risk elements to be used for the ACAM inspections.
These changes are intended to have a positive impact on safety and support standardisation.
