JAA stands by rules on crew time limits

THE EUROPEAN Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) remains on course to introduce its proposed airline-pilot working-hours rules after having considered NASA's latest study on the subject.

A recently published NASA report (Flight International, 1-7 March, P4) recommends some tighter flight-time limitations than those planned by the JAA and has been seized on by airline pilots' unions as support for their resistance to the new rules.

Following the study's publication, the JAA has put back the imminent adoption of the flight-time limitations (Joint Aviation Regulations-Operations 1, Sub-part Q) while it studies the NASA work. It says, however, that changes are unlikely and that there is no change to the 1997 implementation date.

"Having examined the [NASA] document more closely, it is quite extraordinary how close to it that Sub-part Q actually is," says the Richard Yates of the JAA.

Source: Flight International