India, U.S To Sign BASA In Summer

News

AWIN First Jan 10 , 2011

Neelam Mathews

NEW DELHI

India and the U.S. are now soon expected to sign a Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA), civil aviation Secretary Nasim Zaidi tells Aviation Week. “The BASA timeframe is going through a procedure. The Executive Agreement will have to get India’s Cabinet clearance, which is no issue. Next is the implementation procedure for airworthiness agreement, which the FAA has to set the time frame for. The final signing is expected in April/May,” says Zaidi. An initial step was FAA’s technical assessment report—now a completed document—which established the competency of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the existence of an aircraft certification system able to produce results equivalent to the U.S. system. Following this, the FAA recommended to the Department of State that they initiate negotiations for the agreement. “BASA will be a great step forward in the aerospace industry. It will ensure mutual acceptance of aeronautical products and parts developed in either country,” said Zaidi, who until recently was the head of DGCA. This will mean aerospace products can be inspected and certified by DGCA and the products exported, Zaidi says. Since many U.S aeronautical products are now being designed and built in India, there is a need for international acceptance of such products. A “shadow” certification is under development with Goodrich in India for four-seat life rafts for use in general aviation aircraft. Development of the certification article is in progress and will become a model for entities involved in the bilateral arrangement. Companies such as Honeywell Software in India are particularly interested in BASA as products designed in India have to be certified in the U.S resulting in delays and added costs. The U.S. already has similar safety agreements in place with Australia, China, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea.