Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/640 of 23 April 2015 on additional airworthiness specifications for a given type of operations and amending Regulation (EU) No 965/2012

• Published date: 24 April 2015
• Subject Matter: Transport
• Official Gazette Publication: Official Journal of the European Union, L 106, 24 April 2015

02015R0640 — EN — 09.09.2022 — 003.001

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►B COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) 2015/640 of 23 April 2015 on additional airworthiness specifications for a given type of operations and amending Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 (OJ L 106 24.4.2015, p. 18)

Amended by:

		Official Journal
		No	page	date
►M1	COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2019/133 of 28 January 2019	L 25	14	29.1.2019
►M2	COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2020/1159 of 5 August 2020	L 257	14	6.8.2020
►M3	COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2021/97 of 28 January 2021	L 31	208	29.1.2021
►M4	COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2022/1254 of 19 July 2022	L 191	47	20.7.2022

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COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) 2015/640

of 23 April 2015

on additional airworthiness specifications for a given type of operations and amending Regulation (EU) No 965/2012

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Article 1

Subject matter and scope

1.

This Regulation lays down common additional airworthiness specifications related to the continuing airworthiness and safety improvements of aircraft.

2.

This Regulation applies to:

(a)

operators of:

(i)

aircraft registered in a Member State;

(ii)

aircraft registered in a third country and used by an operator for which a Member State ensures oversight;

(b)

holders of a type-certificate, restricted type-certificate, supplemental type-certificate or a change and repair design approval approved by the Agency in accordance with Commission Regulation (EU) No 748/2012 ( 1 ) or deemed to have been issued in accordance with Article 3 of that Regulation;

(c)

the applicants for a type-certificate or a restricted type-certificate for a turbine-powered large aeroplane, for which the application was submitted before 1 January 2019 and who are issued with the certificate after 26 August 2020 when specified in Annex I (Part-26).

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Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation,

(a)

‘maximum operational passenger seating configuration’ shall mean the maximum passenger seating capacity of an individual aircraft, excluding crew seats, established for operational purposes and specified in the operations manual;

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(b)

‘large aeroplane’ means an aeroplane that has the Certification Specifications for large aeroplanes ‘CS-25’ or equivalent in its certification basis;

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(c)

‘large helicopter’ means a helicopter that has the Certification Specifications for large rotorcraft ‘CS-29’ or equivalent in its certification basis;

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(ca)

‘small helicopter’ means a helicopter that has the Certification Specifications for Small Rotorcraft (CS-27) or equivalent in its certification basis;

(cb)

‘small category A helicopter’ means a small helicopter that has all the characteristics of category A as defined in point (17) of Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 and has in its certification basis the additional specifications set out in the Certification Specifications for Large Rotorcraft (CS-29) that are applicable by virtue of the reference in Appendix C to CS-27, or equivalent;

(cc)

‘Substantiated sea conditions’ means those sea conditions which were selected by the applicant for a type certificate or supplemental type certificate against which the resistance of the rotorcraft to capsize has been demonstrated and subsequently certified for ditching or emergency flotation provisions;

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(d)

‘low-occupancy aeroplane’ means an aeroplane that has a maximum operational passenger seating configuration of:

(1)

up to and including 19 seats, or;

(2)

up to and including one third of the maximum passenger seating capacity of the type-certified aeroplane, as indicated in the aeroplane type-certificate data sheet (TCDS), provided that both of the following conditions are met:

(a)

the total number of passenger seats approved for occupancy during taxiing, take-off or landing does not exceed 100 per deck;

(b)

the maximum operational passenger seating configuration during taxiing, take-off or landing in any individual zone between pairs of emergency exits (or any dead-end zone) does not exceed one third of the sum of the passenger seat allowances for the emergency exit pairs bounding that zone (using the passenger seat allowance for each emergency exit pairs as defined by the applicable certification basis of the aeroplane). For the purpose of determining compliance with this zonal limitation, in the case of an aeroplane that has deactivated emergency exits, it shall be assumed that all emergency exits are functional;

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(e)

‘limit of validity’ (LOV) means, in the context of the engineering data that supports the structural maintenance programme, a period of time, stated as a number of total accumulated flight cycles or flight hours or both, during which it is demonstrated that widespread fatigue damage will not occur in the aeroplane;

(f)

‘airworthiness limitation section’ (ALS) means a section in the instructions for continued airworthiness, as required by points 21.A.61, 21.A.107 and 21.A.120A of Annex I (Part 21) to Regulation (EU) No 748/2012, that contains airworthiness limitations that set out each mandatory replacement time, inspection interval and related inspection procedure;

(g)

‘corrosion prevention and control programme’ (CPCP) means a document reflecting a systematic approach to prevent and to control corrosion in an aeroplane’s primary structure, consisting of basic corrosion tasks, including inspections, areas subject to those tasks, defined corrosion levels and compliance times (implementation thresholds and repeat intervals). A baseline CPCP is established by the type certificate holder, which can be adapted by operators to create a CPCP in their maintenance programme specific to their operations;

(h)

‘widespread fatigue damage’ (WFD) means a simultaneous presence of cracks at multiple locations in the structure of an aeroplane that are of such size and number that the structure will no longer meet the fail-safe strength or residual strength used for certification of that structure;

(i)

‘baseline structure’ refers to the structure that is designed under the type certificate for that aeroplane model (that is, the ‘as delivered aeroplane model configuration’);

(j)

‘fatigue-critical baseline structure’ (FCBS) means the baseline structure of an aeroplane that is classified by the type certificate holder as a fatigue-critical structure;

(k)

‘fatigue-critical modified structure’ (FCMS) means any fatigue critical structure of an aeroplane introduced or affected by a change to its type design and that is not already listed as part of the fatigue-critical baseline structure;

(l)

‘damage tolerance evaluation’ (DTE) is a process that leads to a determination of maintenance actions necessary to detect or preclude fatigue cracking that could contribute to a catastrophic failure. When applied to repairs and changes, a DTE includes the evaluation of the repair or change and the fatigue critical structure affected by the repair or change;

(m)

‘damage tolerance inspection’ (DTI) means a documented inspection requirement or other maintenance action developed by holders of a type-certificate or restricted type-certificate as a result of a damage tolerance evaluation. A DTI includes the areas to be inspected, the inspection method, the inspection procedures (including the sequential inspection steps and acceptance and rejection criteria), the inspection threshold and any repetitive intervals associated with those inspections. DTIs may also specify maintenance actions such as replacement, repair or modification;

(n)

‘repair evaluation guideline’ (REG) means a process established by the type certificate holder that guides operators to establish damage tolerance inspections for repairs that affect fatigue-critical structure to ensure the continued structural integrity of all relevant repairs;

(o)

‘fatigue-critical structure’ (FCS) means a structure of an aeroplane that is susceptible to fatigue cracking that could lead to a catastrophic failure of the aeroplane.

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Article 3

Additional airworthiness specifications for a given type of operation

Operators for which a Member State ensures oversight shall, when operating the aircraft referred to in Article 1, comply with the provisions of Annex I.

Article 4

Amendment to Regulation (EU) No 965/2012

Annex III to Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 is amended in accordance with Annex II to this Regulation, in order to contain a reference to this Regulation.

Article 5

Transitional provisions

Aircraft for which operators demonstrated to their competent authority compliance with JAR-26 ‘Additional Airworthiness Requirements for Operations’ (hereinafter ‘JAR-26 requirements’), issued by the Joint Aviation Authorities on 13 July 1998, as amended by the Amendment 3 of 1 December 2005, before the dates of application referred to in Article 6 shall be deemed to comply with the equivalent specifications set out in Annex I to this Regulation.

Aircraft for which compliance with the JAR-26 requirements equivalent to the specifications set out in points 26.50, 26.105...