The Air Navigation Order 2005

Mandatory reporting of occurrences

142.—(1) The objective of this article is to contribute to the improvement of air safety by ensuring that relevant information on safety is reported, collected, stored, protected and disseminated.

(2) The sole objective of occurrence reporting is the prevention of accidents and incidents and not to attribute blame or liability.

(3) This article shall apply to occurrences which endanger or which, if not corrected, would endanger an aircraft, its occupants or any other person.

(4) Without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (3), a list of examples of these occurrences is set out in Annexes I and II (and their Appendices) of Directive 2003/42 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13th June 2003 on occurrence reporting in civil aviation(1).

(5) Every person listed below shall report to the CAA any event which constitutes an occurrence for the purposes of paragraph (3) and which comes to his attention in the exercise of his functions—

(a) the operator and the commander of a turbine-powered aircraft which has a certificate of airworthiness issued by the CAA;

(b) the operator and the commander of an aircraft operated under an air operator’s certificate granted by the CAA;

(c) a person who carries on the business of manufacturing a turbine-powered or a public transport aircraft, or any equipment or part thereof, in the United Kingdom;

(d) a person who carries on the business of maintaining or modifying a turbine-powered aircraft , which has a certificate of airworthiness issued by the CAA, and a person who carries on the business of maintaining or modifying any equipment or part of such an aircraft;

(e) a person who carries on the business of maintaining or modifying an aircraft, operated under an air operator’s certificate granted by the CAA, and a person who carries on the business of maintaining or modifying any equipment or part of such an aircraft;

(f) a person who signs an airworthiness review certificate, or a certificate of release to service in respect of a turbine-powered aircraft, which has a certificate of airworthiness issued by the CAA, and a person who signs an airworthiness review certificate or a certificate of release to service in respect of any equipment or part of such an aircraft;

(g) a person who signs an airworthiness review certificate, or a certificate of release to service in respect of an aircraft, operated under an air operator’s certificate granted by the CAA, and a person who signs an airworthiness review certificate or a certificate of release to service in respect of any equipment or part of such an aircraft;

(h) a person who performs a function which requires him to be authorised by the CAA as an air traffic controller or as a flight information service officer;

(i) a licensee and a manager of a licensed aerodrome or a manager of an airport to which Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2408/92 of 23rd July 1992 on access for Community air carriers to intra-Community air routes(2) applies;

(j) a person who performs a function in respect of the installation, modification, maintenance, repair, overhaul, flight-checking or inspection of air navigation facilities which are utilized by a person who provides an air traffic control service under an approval issued by the CAA;

(k) a person who performs a function in respect of the ground-handling of aircraft, including fuelling, servicing, loadsheet preparation, loading, de-icing and towing at an airport to which Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2408/92 of 23rd July 1992 on access for Community air carriers to intra-Community air routes applies.

(6) Reports of occurrences shall be made within such time, by such means and containing such information as may be prescribed and shall be presented in such form as the CAA may in any particular case approve.

(7) A person listed in paragraph (5) shall make a report to the CAA within such time, by such means, and containing such information as the CAA may specify in a notice in writing served upon him, being information which is in his possession or control and which relates to an occurrence which has been reported by him or another person to the CAA in accordance with this article.

(8) A person shall not make any report under this article if he knows or has reason to believe that the report is false in any particular.

(9) The CAA shall put in place a mechanism to collect, evaluate, process and store occurrences reported in accordance with paragraphs (5) to (7).

(10) The CAA shall store in its databases the reports which it has collected of occurrences, accidents and serious incidents.

(11) The CAA shall make all relevant safety-related information stored in the databases mentioned in paragraph (10) available to the competent authorities of the other Member States and the Commission.

(12) The CAA shall ensure that the databases referred to in paragraph (10) are compatible with the software developed by the European Commission for the purpose of implementing Directive 2003/42 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13th June 2003 on occurrence reporting in civil aviation.

(13) The CAA, having received an occurrence report, shall enter it into its databases and notify, whenever necessary: the competent authority of the Member State where the occurrence took place; where the aircraft is registered; where the aircraft was manufactured, and where the operator’s air operator’s certificate was granted.

(14) The CAA shall provide any entity entrusted with regulating civil aviation safety or with investigating civil aviation accidents and incidents within the Community with access to information on occurrences collected and exchanged in accordance with paragraphs (9) to (13) to enable it to draw the safety lessons from the reported occurrences.

(15) The CAA and the Chief Inspector of Air Accidents shall use any information received in accordance with the terms of this article solely for the purposes set out in this article.

(16) The names or addresses of individual persons shall not be recorded on the databases referred to in paragraph (10).

(17) Without prejudice to the rules of criminal law, no proceedings shall be instituted in respect of unpremeditated or inadvertent infringements of the law which come to the attention of the relevant authorities only because they have been reported under this article as required by Article 4 of Directive 2003/42 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13th June 2003 on occurrence reporting in civil aviation, except in cases of gross negligence.

(18) The provisions in paragraphs (15) to (17) shall apply without prejudice to the right of access to information by judicial authorities.

(19) The CAA shall put in place a system of voluntary reporting to collect and analyse information on observed deficiencies in aviation which are not required to be reported under the system of mandatory reporting, but which are perceived by the reporter as an actual or potential hazard.

(20) Voluntary reports presented to the CAA under paragraph (19) shall be subjected to a process of disidentification by it where the person making the report requests that his identity is not recorded on the databases.

(21) The CAA shall ensure that relevant safety information deriving from the analysis of reports, which have been subjected to disidentification, are stored and made available to all parties so that they can be used for improving safety in aviation.

(1)

O.J. No. L167, 4.7.2003 p. 23.

(2)

O.J. No. L240, 24.8.1992, p. 8.