European Communities (Occurrence Reporting in Civil Aviation) Regulations, 2007

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Citation: IR SI 285/2007

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 19th June, 2007.

I, MARTIN CULLEN, Minister for Transport, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972 (No. 27 of 1972), as amended by the European Communities (Amendment) Act 1993 (No. 25 of 1993), and for the purpose of giving effect to Directive 2003/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2003 1 on occurrence reporting in civil aviation, hereby make the following Regulations—

Citation.

1. These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Occurrence Reporting in Civil Aviation) Regulations 2007.

Interpretation.

2. (1) In these Regulations—

“AAIU” means the Air Accident Investigation Unit referred to in Regulation 6 of the Air Navigation (Notification and Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Regulations 1997 ( S.I. No. 205 of 1997 );

“accident” has the meaning assigned to it by Regulation 3 of the Air Navigation (Notification and Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Regulations 1997 ( S.I. No. 205 of 1997 );

“competent authority” means the authority designated under Regulation 4 as the competent authority;

“Directive” means Directive 2003/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2003 on occurrence reporting in civil aviation;

“disidentification” means removing from reports submitted pursuant to these Regulations all personal details relating to the reporter and technical details which might lead to the identity of the reporter, or of third parties, being identified from the information;

“incident” has the meaning assigned to it by Regulation 3 of the Air Navigation (Notification of Accidents and Incidents) Regulations 1997 (No. 205 of 1997);

“occurrence” means an operational interruption, defect, fault or other irregular circumstance that has or may have influenced flight safety and that has not resulted in an accident or serious incident;

“relevant occurrence” means an occurrence to which these Regulations apply pursuant to Regulation 3;

“serious incident” has the meaning assigned to it by Regulation 3 of the Air Navigation (Notification of Accidents and Incidents) Regulations 1997 ( S.I. No. 205 of 1997 ).

(2) A word or expression that is used in these Regulations and is also used in the Directive shall have in these Regulations the same meaning as it has in the Directive unless the contrary intention appears.

Application.

3. (1) These Regulations apply to occurrences which endanger or which, if not corrected, would endanger an aircraft, its occupants or any other person.

(2) A list of examples of occurrences to which these Regulations apply is set out in Schedules 1, 2 and 3.

Designation of Irish Aviation Authority as competent authority.

4. The Irish Aviation Authority is designated as the competent authority to put in place a mechanism to collect, evaluate, process and store relevant occurrences reported in accordance with Regulations 5 and 6.

Mandatory reporting of relevant occurrences.

5. (1) In this Regulation, “civil aviation (category 1) person” means—

(a) the operator or commander of a turbine-powered or a public transport aircraft used by an operator for which the State ensures safety oversight of operations,

(b) a person who carries on the business of designing, manufacturing, maintaining or modifying a turbine-powered or a public transport aircraft, or any equipment or part thereof, under the oversight of the State,

(c) a person who signs a certificate of maintenance review, or of release to service in respect of a turbine-powered or a public transport aircraft, or any equipment or part thereof, under the oversight of the State,

(d) a person who performs a function which requires him or her to be authorised by the State as an air traffic controller or as a flight information officer,

(e) a manager of an airport covered by Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2408/92 of 23 July 1992 2 on access for Community air carriers to intra-Community air routes,

(f) a person who performs a function connected with the installation, modification, maintenance, repair, overhaul, flight-checking or inspection of air navigation facilities for which the State ensures responsibility, or

(g) a person who performs a function connected with the ground-handling of aircraft, including fuelling, servicing, loadsheet preparation, loading, de-icing and towing at an airport covered by the Council Regulation referred to in subparagraph (e).

(2) A civil aviation (category 1) person shall, in the performance of his or her functions as such a person—

(a) report relevant occurrences to the competent authority as soon as is practicable after they occur, and

(b) give to the competent authority, as soon as is practicable after being requested to do so by the competent authority, such further information in relation to relevant occurrences as the competent authority considers necessary or appropriate for the purposes of the performance of its functions under these Regulations.

(3) A civil aviation (category 1) person commits an offence if the person—

(a) contravenes paragraph (2), or

(b) in compliance or purported compliance with paragraph (2), knowingly or recklessly makes a report or gives further information which is false or misleading in a material particular.

Voluntary reporting of relevant occurrences.

6. (1) In this Regulation, “civil aviation (category 2) person” means a person who performs, in civil aviation operations not mentioned in the definition of “civil aviation (category 1) person” in Regulation 5(1), functions similar to the functions of a person who falls within that definition.

(2) The competent authority shall encourage civil aviation (category 2) persons, in the performance of their functions as such persons—

(a) to report relevant occurrences to the competent authority as soon as is practicable after they occur, and

(b) to give to the competent authority, as soon as is practicable after being requested to do so by the competent authority, such further information in relation to relevant occurrences as the competent authority considers necessary or appropriate for the purposes of the performance of its functions under these Regulations.

(3) A civil aviation (category 2) person commits an offence if, for the purposes of paragraph (2), the person knowingly or recklessly makes a report or gives further information which is false or misleading in a material particular.

Collection, storage and exchange of information.

7. (1) Subject to paragraphs (2) to (5), the competent authority shall put in place a mechanism to collect, evaluate, process and store relevant occurrences reported in accordance with Regulations 5 and 6.

(2) The competent authority shall store on the relevant database—

(a) all reports to which paragraph (1) relates, and

(b) information relating to accidents and serious incidents.

(3) The competent authority shall make available all relevant safety-related information stored on the relevant database to the competent authorities designated by other Member States and to the Commission.

(4) Where the competent authority receives a report of a relevant occurrence, it shall enter it into the relevant database and notify, whenever necessary, the competent authority of the Member State where—

(a) the relevant occurrence took place,

(b) the aircraft is registered,

(c) the aircraft is manufactured,

(d) the operator is certificated.

(5) The names or addresses of individuals shall never be recorded on the relevant database.

(6) In this Regulation, “relevant database” means a database—

(a) maintained by the competent authority for the purposes of these Regulations, and

(b) which uses—

(i) software described in paragraph 3 of Article 6 of the Directive to run the database, or

(ii) software which is compatible with the software referred to in subparagraph (i) to run the database.

Dissemination of information.

8. (1) The AAIU, and any other entity entrusted with regulating civil aviation safety or with investigating civil aviation accidents and incidents within the Community, shall each have access to information on relevant occurrences collected and exchanged in accordance with Regulation 7 so as to enable it to draw the safety lessons from the reported relevant occurrences.

(2) The Irish Aviation Authority—

(a) may publish annually a safety review containing information on the types of relevant occurrences collected by its mandatory occurrence-reporting system to inform the public of the level of safety in civil aviation,

(b) may publish reports made to it pursuant to these Regulations if the reports have first been subjected to disidentification.

Confidentiality of information.

9. (1) This Regulation shall apply without prejudice to the operation of any other law of the State relating to access to information by judicial authorities.

(2) Information received by the competent authority or otherwise by or on behalf of the State (including the AAIU)—

(a) being information referred to in Regulation 7(3) or 8(1), or

(b) being information referred to in the provisions of the law of other Member States corresponding to Regulation 7(3) or 8(1) which give effect to Article 6(1) or 7(1), as the case may be, of the Directive,

shall be treated as confidential and used solely for the objective of the Directive and these Regulations and shall not be disclosable under the Freedom of Information Acts 1997 to 2003.

(3) Without prejudice to the applicable rules of criminal law, proceedings shall not be instituted in any case of an unpremeditated or inadvertent contravention of the law which comes to the attention of the competent authority or the State only because it is the subject of a report under the mandatory occurrence-reporting scheme set out in these Regulations except where such case...