European Union Regulation 1592/2002 came into force in 2002 and created the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on 28 September 2003.  On this date, EASA became responsible for the airworthiness of most of the civil aircraft registered in the European Union.

The CAA is committed to supporting the development of the EASA as a world-class regulator.  CAA is an active member of the EASA Advisory Group of National Authorities (AGNA) and uses this forum to lobby the EASA for rulemaking to improve flight safety; as part of this activity, the CAA is focussed on ensuring that the safety improvements that were in progress under the JAA are completed under the EASA.  CAA will continue to monitor the performance of the EASA in this regard and will provide guidance and assistance wherever possible.

In developing the actions for this Safety Plan, a number of issues were highlighted that now fall under the remit of the EASA.  These will be reviewed and, where appropriate, will be passed to the EASA via AGNA.  Major pieces of CAA work that have already been passed to the EASA include:

Large Birdstrike Database:  The CAA’s large birdstrike database was created to collect information on strikes from birds over 4lb in weight.  The database was fundamental to the improvement of the engine airworthiness requirements (now CS-E), to require a test with a 5.5lb bird, designed to address the threat of large flocking birds.  This database will be extremely useful to EASA in reviewing airframe birdstrike requirements.

Human Centred Design:  The CAA led the JAA effort to produce NPA 25-310 (Human Centred Design); a design methodology that takes into account at the design stage, potential errors that could be made by the user, e.g. the pilot or maintenance engineer.  Despite the fact that the work remains at the NPA stage, Airbus have adopted parts of the methodology voluntarily.  CAA has provided the EASA with the background research required to take the rulemaking programme to fruition and will press for this issue to be given priority.

Large Public Transport Helicopter Emergency Flotation:  CAA research into the improvement of helicopter ditching stability and the crashworthiness of helicopter emergency flotation systems has indicated the potentially significant safety benefits that could accrue from locating additional flotation devices high on the helicopter, fuselage in the vicinity of the main rotor gearbox and engines.  Responsibility for design requirements has now passed to the EASA, so, at the invitation of CAA, EASA has become a member of the Helicopter Safety Research Management Committee (HSRMC) and have been formally notified of CAA’s previous work on emergency flotation.  CAA is in the process of collating all the remaining information on this topic, which will be provided to the EASA for consideration.

Aircraft Icing:  The CAA has been fully involved with the international effort to introduce new rules for Supercooled Large Droplet (SLD) icing, one of the NTSB's "Most Wanted" safety improvements, supplying professional expertise and sponsoring research necessary to properly define the certification requirements.  The research has been presented to EASA during 2005.

In the context of this Safety Plan, the CAA will provide EASA with any information that results from implementing the actions in the plan which fall within the competencies of the Agency, and will work with the Agency to implement any resulting actions. However, the UK CAA is no longer independently pursuing research or rulemaking activities in those areas for which EASA is responsible.