The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) of Australia is confident that its latest attempt at regulatory reform will be successful despite numerous failed attempts over the past 10 years and the concerns of some in the industry that they have been brought into the consultation process late in the day.
CASA wants to simplify its regulations, bringing them into line with International Civil Aviation Organisation requirements and creating "safety through clarity", says Mick Toller, director of aviation safety.
The authority is about to issue a draft notice of proposed rule-making and the new safety regulations are to be published by June. Legislation will be put before the Australian parliament by early next year and implementation of the new rules is expected in January 2005. "If [the rules] are easy to understand then they are easy to put into practice," Toller told the 350-plus delegates who attended the authority's Flight Crew Licensing, Operations and Training (FLOT) conference, which took place in Sydney last week. However, Bruce Byron, chairman of the Aviation Safety Forum and special adviser to CASA, has warned the authority that the programme is ambitious and that "CASA needs to evaluate the risks and address them".
History supports the view that the deadline will not be met, concedes CASA deputy director Bruce Gemmell. The authority first attempted regulatory reform in 1990 when it sought harmonisation with New Zealand's regulations, but this failed, as did several other attempted reformations during the 1990s. The FLOT regulations are a "pretty well developed set of regulations" having been through the discussion phase, says Toller, with last week's industry meeting intended to fine tune them.
Source: Flight International