Can The Afm Emergency Procedure Be Changed

[bluehawaii]

Ladies and Gents, I have a question which you may be able to help me with.

Can the Emergency Procedure in an AFM (Aircraft Flight Manual) be changed with the knowledge and approval of the relevant aviation authority (i.e. CAA or FAA) alone? OR Can the Emergency Procedure in an AFM (Aircraft Flight Manual) be changed with the knowledge and approval of the relevant aviation authority (i.e. CAA or FAA) as well as the Aircraft Manufacturer?

And what are may be the legal ramifications of such a change.

[Mad (Flt) Scientist]

Changing ANYTHING in the AFM requires the OEM to concur because it is a document which they publish. If the changes affected "approved" pages, then the certifying authority(ies) would need to approve the change also, at least for the state of design and possibly for the state of registration.

So a change to a Bombardier AFM would require Bombardier to agree (and to actually make the change), plus Transport Canada approval, plus approval of, for example, FAA, if it was to be applicable to US registered aircraft.

Now, some operators don't use the OEM's AFM; they use a locally developed and produced, and locally approved document. That document is usually heavily based on the OEMs document, but is tailored for things like company policies, local regs, and so on. Changes to that can be made without the OEMs knowledge, and in theory could even contradict the OEM's document.

However, in practice, it'd be a mighty brave operator who elected to make a radical change in a less conservative direction, and a mighty brave local airworthiness authority who approved that, because they are adopting a lot of legal risk, since there is a clear example that they are choosing to ignore/go against.

Its in some ways analagous to the MEL and MMEL. While the MEL is operator specific and locally approved, MELs are (I believe) always constrained by the MMEL, and I'd expect the same logic to apply, at least in practice, to things like Emergency Procedures.

[bluehawaii]

Thanks Mad (Flt) Scientist

[safetypee]

I agree with the position stated by MFS.
However, there may some local authorities who believe that they can, and do, approve local changes to emergency checklists. In the few instances which I know of, the local authority either had mistaken their powers / responsibilities or had extended the common practice of changing normal operating checklists. For the latter, most authorities will copy the manufacturer with the requested change and may devolve approval to the manufacturer by endorsing the request as requiring a certificate of ‘no technical objection’.

Legality – I don’t know, but some national laws might supersede ICAO or the law in the country of certification.
Advice – always check with the manufacturer. Checklists are well thought out (written for good purpose), and tried and tested, but this may not exclude changes in operational context and world standards which would justify a change.

[bluehawaii]

Thanks for your input Safetypee. In which country did the change to an emergency checklist was approved without the manufacturer's prior knowledge and approval?

[safetypee]

The countries were not the usual third world ‘scapegoats’.

I know of at least one instance where an FAA regional office held a different interpretation of the issue from FAA HQ. Normal protocol was resumed after manufacturer intervention.

Other instances were in countries which used FARs and held a similar all-powerful view of the administrative process. Two of these were in Europe (JAR) pre EASA. Even after manufacturer intervention, at least one changed the emergency checklist although this was not a safety critical item.

[bluehawaii]

Thanks Safetypee.