Commission Regulation (EU) No 1321/2014 of 26 November 2014 on the continuing airworthiness of aircraft and aeronautical products, parts and appliances, and on the approval of organisations and personnel involved in these tasks (Recast) (Text with EEA relevance)

This Regulation establishes common technical requirements and administrative procedures to ensure:

1. the continuing airworthiness of aircraft, including any component for installation thereto, which are:

   1. registered in a Member State, unless their regulatory safety oversight has been delegated to a third country and they are not used by an EU operator; or

   2. registered in a third country and used by an EU operator, where their regulatory safety oversight has been delegated to a Member State;

2. compliance with the essential requirements set out in Regulation (EC) No 216/2008 for continuing airworthiness of aircraft registered in a third country and components for installation thereon for which their regulatory safety oversight has not been delegated to a Member State that are dry leased-in by a licence air carrier in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 of the European Parliament and the Council⁽¹⁾.

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

1. ‘aircraft’ means any machine that can derive support in the atmosphere from the reactions of the air other than reactions of the air against the earth's surface;

2. ‘certifying staff’ means personnel responsible for the release of an aircraft or a component after maintenance;

3. ‘component’ means any engine, propeller, part or appliance;

4. ‘continuing airworthiness’ means all of the processes ensuring that, at any time in its operating life, the aircraft complies with the airworthiness requirements in force and is in a condition for safe operation;

5. ‘JAA’ means ‘Joint Aviation Authorities.’;

6. ‘JAR’ means ‘Joint Aviation Requirements’;

7. ‘commercial air transport (CAT) operation’ means an aircraft operation to transport passengers, cargo or mail for remuneration or other valuable consideration;

8. ‘maintenance’ means any one or combination of the following activities: overhaul, repair, inspection, replacement, modification or defect rectification of an aircraft or component, with the exception of pre-flight inspection;

9. ‘organisation’ means a natural person, a legal person or part of a legal person. Such an organisation may be established at more than one location whether or not within the territory of the Member States;

10. ‘pre-flight inspection’ means the inspection carried out before flight to ensure that the aircraft is fit for the intended flight;

11. ‘ELA1 aircraft’ means the following manned European light aircraft:

    1. an aeroplane with a maximum take-off mass (MTOM) of 1 200 kg or less that is not classified as complex motor-powered aircraft;

    2. a sailplane or powered sailplane of 1 200 kg MTOM or less;

    3. a balloon with a maximum design lifting gas or hot air volume of not more than 3 400 m³ for hot air balloons, 1 050 m³ for gas balloons, 300 m³ for tethered gas balloons;

    4. an airship designed for not more than four occupants and a maximum design lifting gas or hot air volume of not more than 3 400 m³ for hot air airships and 1 000 m³ for gas airships;

12. ‘ELA2 aircraft’ means the following manned European Light Aircraft:

    1. an aeroplane with a Maximum Take-off Mass (MTOM) of 2 000 kg or less that is not classified as complex motor-powered aircraft;

    2. a sailplane or powered sailplane of 2 000 kg MTOM or less;

    3. a balloon;

    4. a hot air ship;

    5. a gas airship complying with all of the following characteristics:

       • 3 % maximum static heaviness,

       • non-vectored thrust (except reverse thrust),

       • conventional and simple design of structure, control system and ballonet system, and

       • non-power assisted controls;

    6. a Very Light Rotorcraft;

13. ‘LSA aircraft’ means a light sport aeroplane which has all of the following characteristics:

    1. a Maximum Take-off Mass (MTOM) of not more than 600 kg;

    2. a maximum stalling speed in the landing configuration (VS0) of not more than 45 knots Calibrated Airspeed (CAS) at the aircraft's maximum certificated take-off mass and most critical centre of gravity;

    3. a maximum seating capacity of no more than two persons, including the pilot;

    4. a single, non-turbine engine fitted with a propeller;

    5. a non-pressurised cabin;

14. ‘principal place of business’ means the head office or the registered office of the undertaking within which the principal financial functions and operational control of the activities referred to in this Regulation are exercised;

15. ‘critical maintenance task’ means a maintenance task that involves the assembly or any disturbance of a system or any part on an aircraft, engine or propeller that, if an error occurred during its performance, could directly endanger the flight safety;

16. ‘commercial specialised operations’ means those operations subject to the requirements of Part-ORO, Subpart-SPO set out in Annex III to Commission Regulation (EU) No 965/2012⁽²⁾;

17. ‘limited operations’ means the operations of other-than-complex motor-powered aircraft for:

    1. cost-shared flights by private individuals, on the condition that the direct cost is shared by all the occupants of the aircraft, pilot included and the number of persons sharing the direct costs is limited to six;

    2. competition flights or flying displays, on the condition that the remuneration or any valuable consideration given for such flights is limited to recovery of direct costs and a proportionate contribution to annual costs, as well as prizes of no more than a value specified by the competent authority;

    3. introductory flights, parachute dropping, sailplane towing or aerobatic flights performed either by a training organisation having its principal place of business in a Member State and approved in accordance with Commission Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011⁽³⁾, or by an organisation created with the aim of promoting aerial sport or leisure aviation, on the condition that the aircraft is operated by the organisation on the basis of ownership or dry lease, that the flight does not generate profits distributed outside of the organisation, and that whenever non-members of the organisation are involved, such flights represent only a marginal activity of the organisation;

    For the purpose of this Regulation, ‘limited operations’ are not considered as CAT operations or commercial specialised operations;

18. ‘introductory flight’ means ‘introductory flight’ as defined in Article 2(9) of Regulation (EU) No 965/2012;

19. ‘competition flight’ means ‘competition flight’ as defined in Article 2(10) of Regulation (EU) No 965/2012;

20. ‘flying display’ means ‘flying display’ as defined in Article 2(11) of Regulation (EU) No 965/2012;

21. ‘management systems harmonisation’ means the coordinated process by which the management systems of two or more organisations interact and share information and methods to reach common or consistent safety and compliance monitoring objectives;

22. ‘complex motor-powered aircraft’ means:

    1. an aeroplane:

       • with a maximum certified take-off mass exceeding 5 700 kg, or

       • certified for a maximum passenger seating configuration of more than 19, or

       • certified for operation with a minimum crew of at least two pilots, or

       • equipped with (a) turbojet engine(s) or more than one turboprop engine; or

    2. a helicopter certified:

       • for a maximum take-off mass exceeding 3 175 kg, or

       • for a maximum passenger seating configuration of more than nine, or

       • for operation with a minimum crew of at least two pilots; or

    3. a non-conventional aircraft certified:

       • for a maximum take-off mass exceeding 5 700 kg, or

       • for a maximum take-off mass exceeding 3 175 kg if it can maintain zero horizontal speed in flight, or

       • for a maximum passenger seating configuration of more than nine;

23. ‘aeroplane’ means an engine-driven fixed-wing aircraft heavier than air that is supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against its wings;

24. ‘rotorcraft’ means a power-driven, heavier-than-air aircraft that depends principally for its support in flight on the lift generated by up to two rotors;

25. ‘helicopter’ means a type of rotorcraft supported in flight chiefly by the reactions of the air on up to two power-driven rotors on substantially vertical axes;

26. ‘non-conventional aircraft’ means an aircraft other than an aeroplane, helicopter, sailplane, balloon or airship.