Air Recommendations Reassessments

Limited progress has been made in Canada's aviation sector to address outstanding safety deficiencies. Regulatory delays continue to allow unsafe conditions to persist. Of the 33 outstanding air recommendations assessed in 2012, one progressed to "fully satisfactory", two regressed and 27 were unchanged. The remaining three recommendations saw slight improvements in 2012.

Fully Satisfactory Recommendations

Following a 1992 occurrence in Red Lake, Ontario, the Board recommended that Bombardier amend two Twin Otter manuals to include safety limitation warnings (recommendation no. A94–17). To ensure the safe operation of this aircraft, an advisory circular and an updated manual were published. The Board now considers the risks associated with the safety deficiency to be sufficiently mitigated.

Regressed Recommendations

In 2003, the Board underlined the importance of cockpit image recorders and recommended that regulatory authorities require aircraft be fitted with such systems (A03–08). Due to technical and social issues, Transport Canada (TC) will not pursue Canadian measures until international solutions have been adopted. The Board has therefore downgraded its assessment from "satisfactory intent" to "unsatisfactory".

Unchanged Recommendations

Between 2000 and 2009, the Board made a number of recommendations concerning crew resource management, including pilot decision making training standards (A00–06), approaches into convective weather (A07–01), pilot landing decisions in deteriorating weather (A07–03), landing distance considerations (A07–05) and crew resource management training (A09–02). TC has since elevated these five recommendations to its list of regulatory priorities and is scheduled to submit proposals for consultation in spring 2012.

TC has made some progress towards addressing outstanding safety deficiencies by drafting several notices of proposed amendments, which it has or will soon present to the Canadian Aviation Regulation Advisory Council. These safety deficiencies include quick access recorder data (A03–07), runway end safety area requirements (A07–06), propulsion system reliability (A07–08), flight recorder duration and power supply (A99–02 and A99–03). TC has also published proposed amendments that seek to address ground proximity warning systems (A95–10) and is finalizing the draft of a new Canadian Aviation Regulations subpart that will address two oversight–related recommendations (A09–05 and A09–06).

TC is piloting an accelerated rulemaking process that seeks to fast-track changes required to reduce the risk posed by three safety deficiencies identified in 2011: safe ditching and successful evacuation (A11–03), emergency underwater breathing apparatuses (A11–04), emergency egress for seaplanes (A11–05) and personal flotation devices (A11–06).

Due to limited new information from TC, the Board maintained its previous assessment of four recommendations concerning take–off performance monitoring systems (A06–07), carry-on baggage (A07–07), bounced landing training (A09–01) and visual glide slope indicator training (A09–04).

See the Air recommendations for more details.