WASHINGTON, WILLEMSTAD - A proposed law targeting changes in U.S. aircraft certification calls for tweaks to the FAA’s (U.S. Federal Aviation Administration) delegation system, but the bill’s more significant elements include adding operational data, such as minimum training requirements, to type certificates (TCs) and prohibiting aircraft sales to countries that do not pass the FAA’s international safety audit.
The “Restoring Aviation Accountability Act” is U.S. lawmakers’ first effort to change perceived deficiencies spotlighted by the Boeing 737 MAX crisis. Not surprisingly, changes to the Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) program figure prominently in the bill. But the proposals stop short of a major revamp or scaling back of the program, which the agency uses to delegate specific tasks to qualified industry representatives that are set up in walled-off ODA units to act on the agency’s behalf.
U.S. lawmakers are also using the legislation to push safety improvements beyond U.S. borders. The senators propose banning U.S.-certificated commercial aircraft to operators in any country that does not pass the FAA’s International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) audit. IASA audits, initiated in 1992 to address concerns over how FAA evaluates foreign air carrier safety, evaluate foreign regulators’ compliance with ICAO standards. The latest FAA IASA reviews have five countries. Curaçao is one of them. Curaçao’s aviation has been downgraded to IATA’s Category 2, which signifies non-compliance with ICAO standards.
Other countries that are currently being reviewed by the FAA are Costa Rica, Ghana, Thailand and Venezuela.