Why does Initial training under Part-CC require practical ‘raft’ training even if the operator’s aircraft is not equipped with slide rafts or life rafts?
Reference: Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011 Aircrew as amended by Regulation (EU) No 290/2012 Part-CC available on EASA website.
Under EU-OPS, practical training on the use of rafts was required during Initial training. EU-OPS was a regulation directed, and applicable, to operators, therefore, an operator could provide raft training only when a cabin crew member was to actually operate on the operator’s aeroplane fitted with rafts or similar equipment. The training was conducted with that operator’s specific equipment/rafts.
The Initial training under Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011, Part CC is no longer ‘operator-related’, it is generic, therefore, the practical training on rafts or similar equipment and an actual practice in water are not specific to an operator’s equipment.
CCA holders, when recruited by an operator, are expected to have the ability to perform all types of cabin crew duties, including ditching related duties in water. Part-CC Cabin Crew Attestation (CCA) is issued for a life time and is recognised across all EU. Unlike the EU OPS Attestation, the CCA is subject to validity to attest the competence of the individual cabin crew member. This is foreseen in the Basic Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2018/1139) taking into account the increasing mobility of personnel in the aviation industry and the need to harmonise cabin crew qualifications.
An operator may be granted an approval to provide Part-CC Initial training and to issue the CCA (entitled to a mutual recognition as described above). That operator no longer acts as an operator training only its own cabin crew for its specific operations. That operator acts as a training organisation training future cabin crew who, in their life time, may also operate with other operators and in other Member States.