Attendees Said FAA Proposals Are A "Good First Step"

John Allen, the FAA official in charge of flight standards, told HAI’s Industry Forum on Public-Aircraft Operations that the agency will provide clearer guidance for operators, safety investigators and its own inspectors on how to determine when a civil-certified aircraft is being operated as a public aircraft beyond FAA oversight.

FAA Flight Standards Director John Allen

Allen was one of the featured speakers at the Jan. 20 forum, which about 100 people attended in Alexandria, VA, and more than 200 joined online. HAI hosted the forum as an opportunity for the FAA and NTSB to address industry questions about federal oversight of public aircraft and their operation. NTSB Member Earl Weener discussed the safety board’s investigation of accidents involving public aircraft and the oversight problems they uncovered.

Attendees praised the FAA’s proposed revisions as a good first step in fixing unclear rules about the operation and oversight of public-aircraft missions.

“Instead of shying away from the oversight responsibility, it sounds like the FAA is stepping up to it,” Steve Bandy, chief pilot and director of flight operations for Columbia Helicopters in Portland, Ore., said. The forum, which he attended in person, “was a very good dialogue on a very difficult issue.”

“All parties agree there needs to be a simple and precise set of guidelines on the rules governing operations as public aircraft,” HAI President Matt Zuccaro, who moderated the forum, said. “John Allen made clear that the FAA recognizes that need and wants to work with the helicopter industry and other government agencies on fulfilling it.”

Public aircraft are those owned and operated or contracted by a government agency. Such aircraft generally are operated outside the regulations and surveillance of the FAA. But U.S. regulations are unclear about who bears responsibility for the safety of those aircraft and their passengers and when aircraft shift from civil to public operations. Problems arise particularly when operators of civil-certified aircraft under Part 135 of the Federal Aviation Regulations work under contract to a government agency exempt from those rules.

“The statute is vague,” Allen told those attending the forum in person and online. “It is very confusing.”

NTSB Member Earl Weener

New guidance being developed by the FAA will clarify that. Once that guidance is finalized and briefed to FAA inspectors, Allen said, “the FAA will consider all contracted aircraft operations as civil aircraft operations,” until the contracting government agency provides the operator in advance with a written declaration of public aircraft status on a flight-by-flight basis and notifies the FAA in advance that it has hired that operator to conduct “eligible” public aircraft operations.

“The FAA also must determine the flights in question are legitimate public aircraft operations under the terms of the statute,” Allen said.

Without the declarations and determination, Allen said, “the operation is civil and the FAA has oversight responsibility.”

Allen said the FAA will draw on the discussions at the forum in refining its guidance on public-aircraft operations and is seeking further input, which HAI members and others can offer via e-mail. The FAA hopes to issues an Advisory Circular on the subject in the near future.

FMI: www.rotor.com, www.faa.gov, www.ntsb.gov