The beginning of EASA / FAA Joint Certification
Whilst the ancestry of the FAA goes back to the 1920’s the “Modern” FAA essentially started with the Federal Aviation Act of 1958. A different level of aviation safety was to be found at this time with a number of accidents driving congress to mandate a new independent regulatory body with authority to address safety issues through the power of rulemaking.
Today the FAA has a broad reach with authority for all aspects of aviation related activity in the United States.
Meanwhile over in Europe the Joint Aviation Authority (JAA) forerunner of European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) can show its origins back to the early 1970’s.
The original purpose of the JAA was to provide oversight and guidance related to the design and certification of large Aircraft, Engines and APU’s. It was during these early days that an alignment started to take place between the FAA and the JAA to introduce common certification codes for large aircraft and aircraft engines. Such alignment contributed to the common acceptance of Aircraft Parts and Alliances by participating entities.
The JAA continued to develop to include both maintenance regulations JAR 145 (harmonised with FAA FAR 145) and Operations Joint Aviation Regulation JAR OPS 1 for fixed wing aircraft and JAR OPS 3 for Helicopter Ops.
EASA grew out of the desire to enfranchise EU Aviation within the direct control of the European Commission with the highest level of authority vested in the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
Commencing in 2002, EASA assumed partial control in September 2003 initially focused on Commercial Air Transport – with the demise of the JAA in 2008 EASA assumed full control. With the European Commission acting as a supervisory board, EASA manages the aviation standards which are then administers by the EU Member States.
Today the FAA, EASA and Transport Canada work closely together to provide oversight and regulation to a growing and diverse industry. The FAA oversees maintenance, operation and manufacturing of all aircraft.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) oversees the FAA and investigates aviation incidents and accidents.
European Safety Agency has control and responsibility for establishing common rules for the European Union in the field of civil aviation. EASA is responsible for the entire field of Aviation within the European Union including Design & Manufacture, Operations, Maintenance, Airports, Air Traffic Control & Air Navigation Service.
An existing Agreement between the United States of America and the European Union on cooperation in the regulation of civil aviation safety (the “Agreement”) requires that the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (“EASA”) develop and adopt procedures for regulatory cooperation in civil aviation safety and environmental testing and approvals, typically meetings are held twice yearly.
Sofema Aviation Service (SAS) www.sassofia.com and SofemaOnline (SOL) www.sofemaonline.com pro
