New GA Certification Rules Proposed
After nearly 10 years of lobbying by general aviation advocacy groups, the FAA in March released a draft proposal aiming to overhaul light aircraft certification. Proponents say the changes would cut costs to certify new models and also bring new, safer technologies to the market faster. “This proposal would benefit manufacturers, pilots, and the general aviation community as a whole,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. The proposal affects airplanes with up to 19 seats and a maximum takeoff weight of 19,000 pounds. Comments were accepted for 60 days; the FAA will consider all input before issuing a final rule, perhaps by the end of this year.
Report On Germanwings Crash Finds Fault With Privacy Rules
Aviation authorities in Europe released their final report in March on last year’s fatal Germanwings flight, concluding that airline officials couldn’t have done anything to prevent the crash, since nobody—”neither the co-pilot himself, nor…anybody else, such as a physician, a colleague, or family member”—told anyone at the airline that first officer Andreas Lubitz was suffering from mental-health problems. Investigators at France’s safety bureau, Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses, said changes should be made to patient-confidentiality rules to ensure that authorities are informed when public safety is at risk. All 150 on board died when Lubitz locked his captain out of the cockpit and deliberately flew the Airbus A320 into a mountainside.
