MINISTRY OF CIVIL AVIATION
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, dated the 15th December, 2020
G.S.R. 761(E).— The following draft of certain rules further to amend the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents & Incidents) Rules, 2017, which the Central Government proposes to make in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 7 of the Aircraft Act, 1934 (22 of 1934), is hereby published as required by Section 14 of the said Act, for information of all persons likely to be affected thereby, and notice is hereby given that the said draft will be taken into consideration after a period of thirty days from the date on which the copies of the Gazette of India in which this notification is published, are made available to the public.
Objections or suggestions, if any, may be addressed to Shri Pranjol Chandra, Director, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, New Delhi or mailed to pranjol.chandra@gov.in.
Any objection or suggestion which may be received from any person with respect to the said draft rules before the expiry of the period specified above, will be considered by the Central Government.
Draft Rules
1. (1) These rules may be called the Aircraft (Investigation of Accident and Incident) Amendment Rules, 2020.
(2) They shall come into force on the date of their final publication in the Official Gazette.
2. In the Aircraft (Investigation of Accident and Incident) Rules, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as the said rules), in Rule 2 –
(i) In sub-Rule (1) point (c), after Note 2, the following clause shall be inserted, namely –
“Note3. An aircraft shall be considered as missing when the official search has been terminated and the wreckage has not been located.”
(ii) In sub-Rule (3), for the words, “State and where the State has established an accident investigation authority, the designated accredited representative would normally be from that authority;”, the words ” The accredited representative would normally be from the state’s accident investigation authority;” shall be substituted.
(iii) After the sub-Rule 27, the following sub-rule shall be inserted, namely –
“(27A) “Safety recommendation of global concern (SRGC)” A safety recommendation regarding a systemic deficiency having a probability of recurrence, with significant consequences at a global level, and requiring timely action to improve safety.”
(iv) In sub-Rule (30), for the word “accident”, the word “occurrence” shall be substituted.
(v) After the sub-Rule (36), the following sub-rule shall be inserted, namely –
“(37) “UTC” means Universal Time Co-ordinated.”
3. In the said rules, in Rule 4 –
i. In sub-Rule (2), clause (a) the words “for serious incidents SINCID,” shall be inserted before the words “for incidents”.
ii. In sub-Rule (2) clause (e) the words “(local time or UTC)” shall be inserted after the words “date and time”.
4. In the said rules, in Rule 5 –
i. In sub-Rule (1), clause (d), for the word, “accident”, the word “occurrence” shall be substituted.
ii. In sub-Rule (2), the words “incident or a” after the words “circumstances of any” and the words “an incident or” after the words “circumstances of” shall be deleted.
5. In the said rules, in Rule 7, in sub-Rule (3) –
i. the words “issue directions or” shall be inserted after the words ” under these rules, “.
ii. after clause (c), the following clause shall be inserted, namely –
“(d) for arranging a suitable place and facilitation of transportation of wreckage to such a place.”
6. In the said rules, in Rule 8, sub-Rule (3) –
(i) In clause (h), the word “and” after the words “of the same;” shall be deleted.
(ii) After clause (h), the following clause shall be inserted, namely –
“(ha) to inform ICAO of the issuance of a Safety Recommendation of Global Concern (SRGC) and its responses in dated transmittal correspondence, even when the SRGC is not addressed to ICAO; and”
7. In the said rules, in Rule 11, after sub-Rule (5), the following sub-Rule shall be inserted, namely –
“(6) The DG, AAIB shall accept the report of the Investigator-in-Charge and after acceptance, the same shall be made public by the DG, AAIB in a manner he deems fit.”
8. In the said rules, after omitted Rule 23, the following rule shall be inserted, namely –
“24. AAIB Bulletins. – (1) The DG, AAIB may, through publication entitled AAIB Bulletins, issue information not inconsistent with the Aircraft Act, 1934 (22 of 1934) and these rules, relating to the investigation of accidents and serious incidents of aircraft flying in or over India or of aircraft registered in India.”
9. In the said rules, in Schedule A –
i. In clause (a), the following note shall be inserted, namely –
“Note: Near collision classified with severity “Risk of Collision” and “Safety not assured” as in ICAO Doc 4444 shall be classified as serious incident.”
ii. In Clause (f), for the words “taxiway or unassigned runway”, the words “taxiway, unassigned runway or unintended landing locations such as roadways” shall be substituted.
iii. For the clause (l), the following clause shall be substituted, namely –
“(l) Flight crew incapacitation in flight;
(i) for single pilot operations (including remote pilot);
(ii) or multi-pilot operations for which flight safety was compromised because of a significant increase in workload for the remaining crew.”
iv. In clause (p) the words “(including loss of power or thrust)” shall be inserted after the word “failures”.
v. A new clause (s) shall be inserted, namely –
“(s) Retraction of a landing gear leg or wheels-up landing not classified as an accident.”
vi. A new clause (t) shall be inserted, namely –
“(t) Dragging during landing of a wing tip, an engine pod or any other part of the aircraft, when not classified as an accident.”
10. In the said rules, in Schedule B –
i. In the square brackets under “Schedule B”, the characters “2(a)” shall be substituted by the characters “2(1)”.
ii. In the clause 9, for the words “aircraft as otherwise”, the words “aircraft has otherwise” shall be substituted.
[F. No. AV-11012/3/2019-DG]
SATYENDRA KUMAR MISHRA, Jt. Secy.
Note:-
1. The principal rules were published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii) vide notification number G.S.R. 1011(E) dated 7th August 2017.
