Senate Inquiry, Hearing Program 4th Nov 2011

[Sarcs]

Sunny:

Ziggy, send your paperwork to the ICAO and the FAA and suggest that an international audit is warranted. The Minister doesn't give a.......

That's the best idea Ziggychick...s24 of the TSI Act, as Creamy said, has got way too much wriggle room.

Here's some contacts that might help...

ICAO Headquarters, Montreal, Canada

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
999 University Street, Montréal, Quebec H3C 5H7, Canada
Tel.: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]

ICAO, Asia and Pacific Office
252/1 Vibhavadi-Rangsit Road, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900, Thailand
Mail: P.O. Box 11, Samyaek Ladprao,
Bangkok 10901, Thailand
Tel.: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]

or FAA 'International Affairs' to forward to the 'International Aviation Safety Assesments (IASA)Program':Policy, International Affairs and Environment - Contact Us

Here's a rundown on the remit of IASA:

International Aviation Safety Assessments (IASA) Program

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) established the IASA program through public policy in August of 1992. FAA's foreign assessment program focuses on a country's ability, not the individual air carrier, to adhere to international standards and recommended practices for aircraft operations and maintenance established by the United Nation's technical agency for aviation, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

In mid-1991, FAA began to formulate a program to address these concerns. This program included visits to twelve countries with airlines seeking authority to operate to and from the United States. After a trial period our findings convinced us of the need to formally establish the IASA Program. Notice of our new policy was published in the Federal Register, Vol. 57, No. 164, August 24, 1992. The purpose of the IASA is to ensure that all foreign air carriers that operate to or from the United States are properly licensed and with safety oversight provided by a competent Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in accordance with ICAO standards.

A foreign air carrier of a sovereign state desiring to conduct foreign air transportation operations into the United States files an application with the DOT for a foreign air carrier permit under the Federal Aviation Act, newly recodified at 49 U.S.C. 41302. Parts 211 and 302 of the Economic Regulations of Department Of Transportation (DOT), (14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) parts 211 and 302) prescribe the requirements for issuance of these authorities.

Consistent with international law, certain safety requirements for operations into the United States are prescribed by the FAA's Part 129 regulations (14 CFR part 129). 14 CFR Part 129 specifies that the carrier must meet the safety standards contained in Part 1 (International Commercial Air Transport) of Annex 6 (Operations of Aircraft) to the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention). Before DOT issues a foreign air carrier permit, it notifies the FAA of the application and requests the FAA's evaluation of the respective CAA's capability for providing safety certification and continuing oversight for its international carriers.

Upon DOT notification of a pending foreign air carrier application, if the FAA has not made a positive assessment of that countries safety oversight capabilities, the FAA Flight Standards Service will direct its appropriate international field office to schedule an FAA assessment visit to the CAA of the applicant's country.

Once the assessments visits have been completed, the FAA assessment team will return to the United States to compile the findings. Appropriate notifications to the CAA and other U.S. Government officials of the results of the assessments will be made from Washington, DC., headquarters as soon as possible.

If a CAA is found to be meeting its minimum safety obligations under the Chicago Convention, the FAA will forward a positive recommendation to DOT. If there is a pending foreign carrier application, DOT will issue the requested economic authority and FAA will issue operations specifications to permit the carrier to begin operations to or from the United States.
When CAA's of countries with existing air carrier service to the U.S. are found to not meet ICAO standards, the FAA formally requests consultations with the CAA. The purpose of consultations is to discuss our findings in some detail and explore means to quickly rectify shortcomings found with regard to ICAO annexes, to enable its air carriers to continue service to the United States. During the consultation phase, foreign air carrier operations from that country into the United States will be frozen at existing levels.

This policy is defined in a notice published in the Federal Register (Volume 60, No. 210, October 31, 1995). FAA may also heighten its surveillance inspections (ramp checks) on these carriers while they are in the United States. If the deficiencies noted during consultations cannot be successfully corrected within a reasonable, period of time, FAA will notify DOT that carriers from that country do not have an acceptable level of safety oversight and will recommend that DOT revoke or suspend its carriers economic operating authority

When CAAs of countries with no existing air carrier service to the United States are found to not meet ICAO standards, FAA may not undertake final consultations. The FAA will notify DOT that the CAA does not have an acceptable level of safety oversight and its application for economic authority will be denied. The FAA will undertake a reassessment of the CAA after evidence of compliance with ICAO provisions has been received. FAA will, of course, be willing to meet with CAAs at any time, as our resources permit.

After the assessment visit, consultations (if necessary), and notifications have been completed, FAA will publicly release the results of these assessments. This policy revision, published in 1994 (Federal Register Vol. 59, No. 173, September 8, 1994), was made after considerable deliberation. We determined that the findings in our IASA program regarding safety oversight shortcomings must be provided to all U.S. citizens so they can make informed choices in their international flights.
The FAA plans to periodically revisit CAA's of countries with air carriers operating into the United States to maintain full familiarity of the methods of that country's continued compliance with ICAO provisions. The FAA may also find it necessary to reassess a CAA at any time if it has reason to believe that minimum ICAO standards are not being met.

At present, there are close to 600 foreign air carriers that operate into the United States. There are approximately 103 countries or regional country alliances that have oversight responsibilities for air carriers that either currently operate into the United States, that have air carriers that have applied to operate into the United States, or have a national air carrier that code shares with a U.S. partner air carrier. As of December 18, 2008 the results of 101 completed CAA assessments have been publicly disclosed.


The initial findings have shown that two thirds of these countries were not fully complying with ICAO standards. Deficiencies found in FAA assessments typically fall into major categories. These categories are almost identical to the deficiencies that have been found by ICAO in the past. These deficiencies included:

• inadequate and in some cases nonexistent regulatory legislation;
• lack of advisory documentation;
• shortage of experienced airworthiness staff;
• lack of control on important airworthiness related items such as issuance and enforcement of Airworthiness Directives, Minimum Equipment Lists, investigation of Service Difficulty Reports, etc.;
• lack of adequate technical data;
• absence of Air Operator Certification (AOC) systems,
• nonconformance to the requirements of the AOC System
• lack or shortage of adequately trained flight operations inspectors including a lack of type ratings;
• lack of updated company manuals for the use by airmen;
• inadequate proficiency check procedures; and
• inadequately trained cabin attendants.

Some of the same items are also being found on FAA ramp checks of foreign carriers while in this country. This list is long but by no means exhaustive and points out a continuing safety oversight problem that several ICAO member States need to address within its own CAA. These are also problems that must be corrected before carriers from those CAAs can operate on a regularly scheduled basis to and from the United States.
Desired Outcome

The FAA is working to determine that each country meets its obligations under ICAO and to provide proper oversight to each air carrier operating into the U.S. The continued application of this program will result in a lower number of safety-related problems, including accidents, incidents, and an improved level of safety to the flying public.

Hope that helps Ziggy?