The US Federal Aviation Administration has warned that progress towards a US-Russian bilateral on aircraft certification has been halted by confusion over which bodies will be responsible for airworthiness under the new Russian Air Code, and continuing problems with quality control at production plants.
"The FAA has been ready for the past year to complete its technical assessment, but the Russian resolution of the remaining obstacles to a bilateral agreement has taken a great deal of time," says Mary Cheston, FAA manager - international airworthiness programmes.
A key issue is over the failure of the new Russian Air Code to spell out which body would have overall authority for airworthiness issues. Instead, the code refers to "specially authorised bodies".
The Aviation Register of the Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) is now responsible for airworthiness, but the new Federal Aviation Service, formed in August 1996, also has rule-making powers for air operators.
The Air Code has also been criticised within Russia. "This is a very bad code," says Yuri Maleev, professor of aviation law at Moscow State University. He had been brought in as an advisor, but eventually walked out because of the lack of detail in the legislation.
The code will now be put before a committee of Government experts, who have until September to draw up a commentary on its implementation. Maleev believes that, in practice, much of the detailed working of the code will lie in these amendments.
Valentin Sushko, chairman of the Aviation Register, concedes that blame for certification delays to the bilateral now lies with Russian industry, highlighting the failure by manufacturers to demonstrate to the FAA that the necessary quality-control systems were in place. He says that the FAA's "shadow" certification of the Ilyushin Il-103 could have been signed off in 1996, but for quality-control issues at MAPO Loukhovitsy.
Source: Flight International
