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What happens if result of ARC review is negative

What happens when during ARC review aircraft is found not airworthy? Are there any “hard rules” which the ARC inspector must follow after such a failed review? The airplane is ELA1 SEP on “D” register. Non commercial operation. I’m looking for answers to some specific questions:
1. Does the owner need to be notified about the result of ARC review?
2. How about presenting the owner with a complete list of findings?
3. An ARC inspector states that the aircraft has been not airworthy “for a number of years” when in fact over those years the aircraft was flying over Europe with a valid ARC. Is the ARC inspector obliged to inform the competent authority?

I don’t know the answers to your questions 2 and 3, but I am confused over this one:

Robin_253 wrote:

Does the owner need to be notified about the result of ARC review?

How can the owner not be? Or is the aircraft leased?

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

At the moment let’s assume that the owner was prevented from accessing the plane.

If an aircraft fails an ARC then it should be reported to the authorities, I take the view that if the reasons for failure are trivial or and have no safety implications I would ask for them to be fixed before re-presenting the aircraft.

Should the aircraft be the subject of neglect, time / life expired items or dangerous faults then the authorities have to be informed.

While my attitude may not comply strictly with the regulations I see no merit in bothering the authorities with nif-naf & trivia.

Let’s not get confused: a valid and current ARC does not make an EASA aircraft airworthy. It is only ONE of the essential requirements for airworthiness.

Every time the aircraft has a defect affecting airworthiness, it is the owner’s responsibility (although this can be delegated to a CAMO under approved procedures) to ensure that such a defect is either dispatched per some approved deferral procedure or rectified before further flight. PIC’s have to access such information and the owner has to ensure so again under some procedure..

It does not matter whether such defect has been raised by a pilot, a maintenance organization or during an ARC renewal.

The only difference in the latter case, is that the ARC cannot be validated or renewed until such defect is rectified. In the meantime, if the current ARC has not expired, it is still valid regardless, although the aircraft’s airworthiness may have been temporarily lost as explained above as a result of the defect.

If the defect is a ‘paper’ rather than a physical one, the requirement to address it before further flight depends on relevant CAMO procedures if under the control of a CAMO, or under owner responsibility otherwise.

The ARC inspector MUST submit his report to the owner or responsible CAMO. A different matter is when. THis is irrespective of the owner’s access to the aircraft. Of course the owner (or responsible CAMO) cannot act upon information he does not have. And in fact, depending on how long the ARC inspector takes to produce his report, the owner may be informed of such ‘paper’ issue after several flights post the review, which does not make those flights illegal. (Airplanes fly with unairworthy defects, paper or physical, all the time, which is legally OK until they become known as a result of an inspection or otherwise).

There is no reason for authorities to be immediately informed of defects in an ARC review, although most ARC CAMOs have to make the report available to the authorities at some point in time. The inspector would be obliged to report relevant safety issues (just like anyone else) per the applicable MOR regulation .

I hope this is of help. PM me if required.

Last Edited by Antonio at 18 Jul 20:10
Antonio
LESB, Spain
5 Posts
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