DAVID LEARMOUNT/ LONDON
Move will end 10-year battle to prove safety record
Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities is poised to approve by May commercial single-engine instrument flight rules (SEIFR) operations for passengers and cargo. The move will bring to an end a 10-year fight by general aviation's small commercial operators all over Europe to prove that certain turboprop-powered singles have a better or equivalent safety record to that of multi-engined aircraft operating in the same sector.
Draft seven of the notice of proposed amendment (NPA), intended to be the final draft, will be considered by the JAA's Operational Sectorial Team at its 17-19 February meeting, and the JAA Committee is expected to adopt it virtually unamended at its meeting in May, approving commercial SEIFR. Following JAA adoption, implementation by JAA states is theoretically immediate.
The NPA's approval is based on statistics supplied by the UK Civil Aviation Authority that show there were no power failure-related fatal accidents between 1991 and 2002 involving the designated single- engined turboprop types in 3.62 million hours of operation, whereas the fatal accident rate in loss of power incidents among "comparable light twins" is 4 per million flying hours. The types considered for SEIFR are the Cessna 208 Caravan, the Pilatus PC-12 and EADS Socata's TBM-700, all powered by Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 series engines.
The NPA reflects concessions to the argument that a single-engined aircraft which loses all power has no choice but to land within gliding range. The normal requirement for en route flight should be that the aircraft flies at a height which will allow it to glide to a landing site from any point on the track - with some concessions for limited flight over water or "inhospitable territory". Bob Crowe, owner of UK-based Cessna Caravan dealer Bob Crowe Aircraft Sales, says that this "will allow commercial operators to fly throughout Europe with passengers and cargo without undue restrictions".
Source: Flight International
