BASA Reasons to be cheerful ?
America and the European Union have officially concluded a
long-awaited bilateral aviation safety agreement (BASA) designed to
make government oversight of aviation more efficient and to pave the
way for future regulatory cooperation. The BASA, signed on March 15th,
allows reciprocal acceptance FAA and EASA certification and oversight
of civil aviation products and repair stations. The US and the EU
specifically agree to recognise each other’s ‘findings of compliance
and approvals.’ This means, for example, that the FAA can determine a
US repair station is eligible for an EASA approval to work on European
registered products without a separate inspection by European
regulators.
The BASA is good news for the industry. Duplication of oversight was a
real fear, and the BASA takes a lot of expense and bureaucracy out of
the equation. Importantly, the BASA makes provision for annexes to be
developed and added by a Bilateral Oversight Board, leaving the door
open for agreements in other areas, including flight crew licensing.
EASA’s proposals to hammer the N-register operator in Europe have been
put back to 2014, and may now be subject to bilateral negotiations.