Julian Moxon/PARIS
Fresh attempts by the European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) to settle the long-running controversy in Europe over the approval for commercial operations of single-engined aircraft in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) and at night have run into difficulties.
The JAA is on the verge of taking the unusual step of issuing an "advanced" notice of proposed amendment (ANPA) before the actual NPA is issued, a move expected to delay the overall process by at least six months. The proposal is likely to recommend that only cargo operations are allowed initially.
Canada approved single-engined aircraft commercial passenger carriage in 1993, and the USA, which has had cargo-only approval since 1975, is about to follow suit.
Sources at the JAA admit to another frustrating delay in achieving European approval. They blame "a few top people" at the UK and German civil aviation authorities. The original ANPA was due to be issued in December, but is now unlikely to see the light of day before June, with the NPA following at a still undetermined date.
Meanwhile, operators of large turbine singles such as the Cessna Caravan are becoming increasingly frustrated. They point to the proven high reliability of single- engined turbine aircraft against the relative dangers of some of the older piston twins, which are still allowed to fly commercially.
They accuse the UK CAA, in particular, of intransigencein the face of "overwhelming evidence" that such aircraft have built up a good safety record, pointing to more than 2 million flying hours accumulated by FedEx with its Caravans in the USA.
"The UK authorities are choosing to ignore the facts," says one industry source. "If they looked at the statistics, they would see that turbines are obviously much safer than pistons."
Operators point to recent figures in the JAA proposals, in which the engine-related accident and fatality rates of piston singles are six times higher than for turbine singles. "Their own documentation shows that the survivability rate after a turbine single failure is higher."
The JAA established a working group to pursue the single-engine issue in late 1994. Insiders now admit that they "do not understand" the continued resistance to limited introduction of turbine powered singles.
Source: Flight International
