Commonwealth legislation

CASA EX108/10 – Exemption – side facing seats on aircraft not occupied for take-off or landing

RepealedCTH

This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.

Jurisdiction

Commonwealth

Collection

legislative instrument

Plain English Summary

2/10 complexity

What this does: This is a temporary exemption from aviation safety rules for aircraft operators.

Normally, aviation regulations require side-facing seats (seats that face the aisle or wall rather than the front or back of the aircraft) to meet strict safety standards to protect passengers during crashes. This instrument allows registered aircraft operators to ignore those specific safety standards, but only under strict conditions:

The seat must remain empty during take-off and landing (the most dangerous phases of flight)
There must be a prominent sign (placard) on the seat prohibiting occupancy during take-off and landing

Who it affects: Registered operators of most aircraft (excluding balloons, airships, gliders, and aircraft with special or experimental certificates).

Why it matters: It provides temporary flexibility for aircraft configuration while maintaining passenger safety by ensuring no one sits in these less-protected seats during critical moments. The exemption was time-limited, anticipating permanent rule changes.

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Current sections

Direct links to the current provisions in CASA EX108/10 – Exemption – side facing seats on aircraft not occupied for take-off or landing.

CASA EX108/10 – Exemption – side facing seats on aircraft not occupied for take-off or landing

Instrument number CASA EX108/10

I, JONATHAN ALECK, Acting Director of Aviation Safety, on behalf of CASA, make this instrument under regulation 11.160 of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998 (CASR 1998).

[Signed Jonathan Aleck]

Jonathan Aleck
Acting Director of Aviation Safety

22 December 2010

Exemption — side facing seats on aircraft not occupied for take-off or landing

1 Duration

This instrument:

(a) commences on the day after it is registered; and

(b) stops having effect at the end of 30 November 2012.

Note Part 90 of CASR 1998 will be amended before the exemption expires.

2 Application

This instrument applies to the registered operator of an aircraft to which Subpart 90.B of CASR 1998 applies.

Note Subpart 90.B of CASR 1998 applies to aircraft other than balloons, airships, sailplanes, powered sailplanes and aircraft with certain special certificates of airworthiness, experimental certificates, special flight permits and provisional certificates of airworthiness.

3 Exemption

The registered operator of an aircraft is exempt from regulation 90.120 of CASR 1998.

Note Regulation 90.120 of CASR 1998 deals with safety standards for side-facing seats.

4 Conditions

The exemption is subject to the conditions mentioned in Schedule 1.

Schedule 1 Conditions

The exemption applies to a side-facing seat of an aircraft only if:

(a) the registered operator requires the seat to be unoccupied during take-off or landing; and

(b) the seat has a prominent placard prohibiting occupancy during take-off or landing.

Source text

Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.

1 CASA EX108/10 – Exemption – side facing seats on aircraft not occupied for take-off or landing