EXCLUSIVE! CCS CLEARS BASA

Neelam Mathews

July 5, 2011

Time- 5.00PM IST

India and the U.S have come much closer to signing the Executive Agreement of the  Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA), with the Cabinet Committee of Security having cleared it last week.

The next step is the implementation procedure for airworthiness agreement, which the FAA has to set the time frame for. The final signing is expected in summer, Aerospace Diary learns from a government official.

“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,” Nasim Zaidi, secretary Ministry of civil aviation had said a few months ago.

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.

This will mean aerospace products can be inspected and certified by DGCA and the products exported. 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 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.