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    EASA Safety Information Bulletin: SIB No.: 2011-07 Issued: 05 May 2011

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    Fais
    The EASA Safety Information Bulletin (SIB) discusses recent accidents that occurred during functional check flights of aircraft. Such flights are performed for maintenance checks, lease transfers, or troubleshooting and are outside of normal commercial operations. The SIB recommends that operators conducting these flights 1) perform a risk assessment specific to these flights, 2) establish specific procedures in their operating manuals, 3) clearly communicate the intent and procedures to all involved personnel, and 4) only use crews with appropriate knowledge, experience, and training for these flights. The SIB was issued to raise awareness of hazards after accidents occurred due to loss of control from blocked sensors and from unconsidered risks of manual tests.

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    EASA Safety Information Bulletin: SIB No.: 2011-07 Issued: 05 May 2011

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    Fais
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    The EASA Safety Information Bulletin (SIB) discusses recent accidents that occurred during functional check flights of aircraft. Such flights are performed for maintenance checks, lease transfers, or troubleshooting and are outside of normal commercial operations. The SIB recommends that operators conducting these flights 1) perform a risk assessment specific to these flights, 2) establish specific procedures in their operating manuals, 3) clearly communicate the intent and procedures to all involved personnel, and 4) only use crews with appropriate knowledge, experience, and training for these flights. The SIB was issued to raise awareness of hazards after accidents occurred due to loss of control from blocked sensors and from unconsidered risks of manual tests.

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    The EASA Safety Information Bulletin (SIB) discusses recent accidents that occurred during functional check flights of aircraft. Such flights are performed for maintenance checks, lease transfers, or troubleshooting and are outside of normal commercial operations. The SIB recommends that operators conducting these flights 1) perform a risk assessment specific to these flights, 2) establish specific procedures in their operating manuals, 3) clearly communicate the intent and procedures to all involved personnel, and 4) only use crews with appropriate knowledge, experience, and training for these flights. The SIB was issued to raise awareness of hazards after accidents occurred due to loss of control from blocked sensors and from unconsidered risks of manual tests.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    28 views3 pages

    EASA Safety Information Bulletin: SIB No.: 2011-07 Issued: 05 May 2011

    Uploaded by

    Fais
    The EASA Safety Information Bulletin (SIB) discusses recent accidents that occurred during functional check flights of aircraft. Such flights are performed for maintenance checks, lease transfers, or troubleshooting and are outside of normal commercial operations. The SIB recommends that operators conducting these flights 1) perform a risk assessment specific to these flights, 2) establish specific procedures in their operating manuals, 3) clearly communicate the intent and procedures to all involved personnel, and 4) only use crews with appropriate knowledge, experience, and training for these flights. The SIB was issued to raise awareness of hazards after accidents occurred due to loss of control from blocked sensors and from unconsidered risks of manual tests.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 3

    EASA SIB No: 2011-07

    EASA Safety Information Bulletin

    SIB No.: 2011-07


    Issued: 05 May 2011

    Subject: Functional Check Flights

    Applicability: All aircraft, certificated in any category, operated under an Air


    Operator Certificate (AOC).

    Ref. Publications: - France Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses (BEA) Accident Report


    Ref ISBN 978-2-11-099128-7.
    - United Kingdom Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB)
    Report EW/C2009/01/02, AAIB Bulletin 9/2010.
    - UK AAIB Report EW/C2009/11/03, AAIB Bulletin 12/2010.
    - FAA Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO) 08024.

    Background: A number of accidents/incidents have occurred recently on


    European registered aircraft during functional check flights.
    For the purpose of this SIB, a functional check flight is any non-
    revenue flight performed to assess or demonstrate aircraft
    serviceability, for in service aircraft already having a valid
    certificate of airworthiness. This could be a flight after maintenance
    or before lease transfer, or troubleshooting checks on the ground
    where the aircraft is operated by a flight crew.
    The core business of an operator may not necessarily include the
    conduct of such flights on a regular basis; thus, the level of
    expertise to conduct these flights safely may not be available.
    As a first step, this SIB is published to raise awareness of the
    hazards. The content of this SIB has been produced in
    consultation with the European National Aviation Authorities
    (NAAs).
    Secondly, EASA included into the OPS Comment Response
    Document (CRD) to Notice of Proposed Amendment (NPA) 2008-
    22c and 2009-02c proposal for the new implementing rules OPS
    an obligation on operators to describe non-commercial flights of
    aircraft included under their Air Operator Certificate (AOC) in detail
    in the operations manual, including:
    - identification of the applicable requirements;
    - a clear identification of any differences between operating
    procedures used when conducting commercial and non-
    commercial operations; and
    - a means of ensuring that all personnel involved in the operation
    are fully familiar with the associated procedures.

    This is information only. Recommendations are not mandatory.


    EASA Form 117 Page 1/3
    EASA SIB No: 2011-07

    These procedures would require prior approval of the competent


    authority.
    Thirdly, EASA will conduct Rulemaking activities to address
    maintenance check flights and non-revenue flights 1 in more detail
    (MDM 097 and OPS.075).
    The FAA pointed out that a significant number of accidents
    have occurred during non-revenue flights on US-registered
    aircraft over the past decade and published SAFO 08024.

    Description: In the context of the transfer of an Airbus A320 at the end of a


    leasing contract, a non-revenue flight ended in a fatal accident, as
    a result of stalling. The flight programme was based on that used
    for customer acceptance flights, which is normally performed in
    conjunction with the manufacturers’ test pilot. In this occurrence,
    the manufacturer was not involved. The French Bureau
    d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses (BEA) identified that the accident was
    caused by the loss of control of the aeroplane by the crew
    following the check of the functioning of the angle of attack
    protections, while the blockage of the angle of attack sensors
    made it impossible for these protections to trigger. The crew was
    not aware of the blockage of the angle of attack sensors. They did
    not take into account the speeds mentioned in the programme of
    checks available to them and consequently did not abort the check
    before the stall.
    In another event, in the context of a combined maintenance check
    and demonstration flight to confirm the serviceability of the
    aeroplane at the end of a lease agreement, a non-revenue
    functional check flight on a Boeing 737 ended in a serious incident
    investigated by the United Kingdom Air Accidents Investigation
    Branch (AAIB). The investigation showed that a manual reversion
    check was being conducted on the flight controls and the aircraft
    pitched rapidly nose-down, descending approximately 9 000 feet
    before control was regained.
    A third event occurred on a Dassault Falcon 2000. In the context
    of maintenance troubleshooting, the crew performed eight (8)
    accelerate/stop runs without due consideration of the brake energy
    effects which resulted in a landing gear fire propagating on the
    airframe. The investigation conducted by the UK AAIB identified
    that the information available in the Aircraft Flight Manual was not
    appropriate for the purpose of such an activity.
    In the first two events mentioned above, the flights were performed
    to confirm aircraft serviceability before lease transfer. The
    investigation results highlighted the vulnerability of operating an
    aircraft outside the normal operational practices that apply to
    commercial flights.
    In the third case, tests were performed in the framework of
    systems troubleshooting without considering all related hazards,
    specifically brake energy effects.

    1
    Non-revenue flight is the term presently used in EU-OPS and JAR-OPS 3, however the task could also
    impact non-commercial and specialised (aerial work) operators. One of the first tasks will be to list and
    define the different types of ‘non-revenue flights’

    This is information only. Recommendations are not mandatory.


    EASA Form 117 Page 2/3
    EASA SIB No: 2011-07

    Recommendations: EASA recommends operators, intending to conduct flights and


    manoeuvres that could be classified as functional check flights, to
    seek advice from the competent authorities (European NAAs in
    charge of their oversight, or EASA for design-related issues) and
    from the type certificate holder of the aircraft.
    The operator should also establish:
     A flight operational risk assessment specific to functional
    check flights;
     Risk mitigation measures including operating procedures
    for such flights as expanded in the Operating Manual.
    EASA further recommends that the following be clearly
    communicated to all personnel involved:
    - the intentions of the functional checks;
    - the way the functional checks are intended to be performed;
    - procedures that are different or in addition to standard
    operating procedures; and
    - roles and responsibilities of all personnel involved.
    Such flights should only be performed by crew with appropriate
    knowledge, experience and training.

    Contact: For further information, contact the Airworthiness Directives,


    Safety Management & Research Section, Certification
    Directorate, EASA. E-mail: [email protected].

    This is information only. Recommendations are not mandatory.


    EASA Form 117 Page 3/3

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