The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issues, as necessary, acceptable means of compliance (AMC) and guidance material (GM) to Annex I (Part 21) to Regulation (EU) No 748/2012 to illustrate the means for stakeholders to establish compliance with the Regulation or to illustrate the meaning of a requirement. These AMC or GM require regular amendments to take specific safety issues into consideration and introduce new or amend the existing acceptable means of compliance or procedures.
The objective of this Decision is to:

• address a safety recommendation following an accident that occurred in Norway on 29 April 2016;
• resolve certain recurrent implementation issues by improving the text of the AMC and GM to Annex I (Part 21);
• leave no room for misinterpretation of the Regulation, as noticed during design organisation approval (DOA) holder initial investigations and surveillance activities, by including clarifications;
• align the means of compliance with the current industry practices; and
• remove unnecessary guidance material and correct typographical errors.

Decision 2021/001/R amends the AMC and GM to Annex I (Part 21) to Regulation (EU) No 748/2012.
The amendments are expected to increase the efficiency of implementing Annex I (Part 21) and ensure alignment with the current industry practices.

Evidence-based training (EBT)

Following the adoption of:

• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/2036 of 9 December 2020 amending Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 as regards the requirements for flight crew competence and training methods and postponing dates of application of certain measures in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic; and
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/2193 of 16 December 2020 amending Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011 as regards the requirements for flight crew competence and training methods, and as regards the reporting, analysis and follow-up of occurrences in civil aviation,

the objective of this Decision is to facilitate the implementation of the newly introduced or amended flight crew training requirements that are intended to improve pilot competencies by updating the associated acceptable means of compliance (AMC) and guidance material (GM).

The present Decision and the adoption of the above-mentioned Regulations are parts of a global safety initiative endorsed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), whose objective is to determine the relevance of the existing pilot training according to aircraft generation. In particular, they constitute a second step in the context of European Union rulemaking actions to implement EBT. The first step was completed in 2015 with the publication of ED Decision 2015/027/R that provided guidance material to allow the implementation of a ‘mixed EBT’ which maintains the current operator proficiency check (OPC) and licence proficiency check (LPC). This Decision completes the second step initiated by the above-mentioned Regulations that amended Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 (Air OPS Regulation) and Regulation (EU) No 1178/2011 (Aircrew Regulation) to allow authorities to approve the baseline EBT, which replaces OPC and LPC. This will allow a single philosophy of recurrent training within the airline. EBT is intended to improve safety by enhancing the capability of flight crews to operate the aircraft in all flight regimes by recognising and managing unexpected situations. The EBT concept is designed to maximise learning and minimise formal checking. Further work is foreseen in the context of the activities of RMT.0599 to allow expansion of EBT to the operator conversion course and initial type rating, as well as to other types of aircraft (e.g. helicopters and business jets).

The impact assessment (IA) detailed in NPA 2018-07 and Opinion No 08/2019 showed that the implementation of EBT by the operator on a voluntary basis is the preferred option in regulating recurrent training and checking of flight crew. The IA illustrates that the adopted rules in combination with the AMC & GM issued with this Decision contribute to significant improvement in safety by strengthening the competencies of flight crews while providing a cost-efficient and socially acceptable framework.

AMC & GM to Regulation (EU) No 139/2014 — Issue 1, Amdt 5 | Runway safety

The objective of this Decision is to maintain a high level of safety by contributing to the mitigation of the safety risks associated with runway safety, from an aerodrome’s perspective. Moreover, this Decision aims at transposing the relevant International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) provisions (ICAO Annex 14 Volume I ‘Aerodrome Design and Operations’ 8th Edition; ICAO Doc 9981 ‘Procedures for Air Navigation Services – Aerodromes’ 2nd Edition; ICAO Annex 15 ‘Aeronautical Information Services’ 16th Edition) to the EU regulatory framework, but also at maintaining a level playing field, and ensuring the harmonised implementation of the provisions of Regulation (EU) No 139/2014, as amended by Regulation (EU) 2020/2148, which was adopted following the publication of EASA Opinion No 03/2019.

This Decision amends the Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) and Guidance Material (GM) to Annex I (Definitions), Annex II (Part-ADR.AR), Annex III (Part-ADR.OR) and Annex IV (Part-ADR.OPS) to Regulation (EU) No 139/2014.

The amendments of the AMC and GM cover a variety of areas, such as the authorisation of drivers at aerodromes, and the authorisation, operation and maintenance of vehicles at aerodromes including their marking and lighting. They also cover the area of communications, the control of pedestrians at the aerodrome, and the implementation of the new Global Reporting Format (GRF) of runway surface conditions. Moreover, the amendments to AMC and GM cover also other areas, such as, training and proficiency check programmes, handover of activities and the provision of relevant information, notice to airmen (NOTAM) origination, aerodrome winter operations, aerodrome maintenance, aircraft towing and FOD control programme, as well as changes to existing requirements related to surface movement guidance and control systems (SMGCS).