What is the responsibility of the operator’s focal point the so-called TCO Master User?
Answer
The Master User (MU) is the User EASA’s primary point of contact and shall be an agent or employee of the organisation, duly authorised/empowered by senior management to represent the operator. He/she should have direct access to technical information. Therefore, remotely located personnel (e.g. station managers) or lawyers/consultants are not ideal candidates to act as MU and often cause delays in the process.
The MU is the only user that has the privilege to submit technical questionnaires to EASA. An operator can only appoint one MU. The MU is responsible for the administration and management of the organisations’ staff users’ accounts. For redundancy reasons the MU shall appoint at least one staff user.
The MU shall terminate access of staff users to the web-interface upon termination of employment with the current employer when access to the TCO web interface is not needed or following a breach of any of the policies governing the “Terms of Reference” of the web-interface.
When the MU intends to terminate function, he/she shall coordinate the succession with EASA.
The MU shall maintain technical data submitted to EASA current at all times, (e.g., aircraft types, individual airframes, relevant certificates). The MU shall always be attentive to the email notifications received from the TCO web-interface (even after the initial issuance of the authorisation).
The MU is responsible for the follow up of non-compliance findings where applicable.
Furthermore, the MU should ensure that a proper system is put in place to respond/act immediately upon receipt of ‘TCO Alert’ messages, which are triggered when an aircraft submits a flight plan to EU territories for an aircraft that is not (yet) authorised under Part-TCO.