Sofema Aviation Services (SAS) www.sassofia.com considers the role, purpose, and applicability of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Annex 6.
Introduction
ICAO SARPS (Standards and Recommended Practices) for each area of ICAO responsibility are contained in 19 Annexes. Each Annex deals with a particular subject area. All are subject to regular amendments and the detail in respect of many of them is contained in publications in the numbered ICAO Document Series.
Annex 6
Annex 6 provides criteria for safe operating practices and contributes to the efficiency and regularity of international air navigation by encouraging the Member States to facilitate the passage over their territories of commercial aircraft belonging to other countries and operating with these criteria. The current Annex 6 Operation of Aircraft is divided into three parts/volumes:
- Part I – International Commercial Air Transport – Aeroplanes
- Part II – International General Aviation – Aeroplanes
- Part III – International Operations – Helicopters.
Note – Annex 6 was renamed in December 1951 Operation of Aircraft – International Commercial Air Transport.
Annex 6 specifies international Standards and Recommended Practices for aeroplanes used in international commercial air transport operations carrying passengers or freight.
The Annex addresses:
- Flight operations
- Performance operating limitations
- Aeroplane instruments
- Equipment and flight documents
- Aeroplane communication and navigation equipment
- Aeroplane maintenance
- Flight crew
- Flight operations officers / flight dispatchers
- Manuals, logs, and records
- Cabin crew
- Security
- Lights to be displayed in the air and on the ground during operations
- Contents of an operations manual
- Flight time and flight duty period limitations.
New provisions adopted by ICAO Council in March 2016 are aimed at preventing the loss of commercial aircraft experiencing distress in remote locations.
- The requirement for aircraft to carry autonomous distress tracking devices which can autonomously transmit location information at least once every minute in distress circumstances.
- The requirement for aircraft to be equipped with a means to have flight recorder data recovered and made available in a timely manner.
- Extending the duration of cockpit voice recordings to 25 hours so that they cover all phases of flight for all types of operations.
Amendments to Annex 6 adopted in March 2022 proposed the following:
- The use of ground proximity warning systems by smaller aeroplanes.
- The introduction of a runway overrun awareness and alerting system intended to reduce runway excursion incidents and accidents.
- Clarification on the need for an aircraft pilot to consider the level of rescue and fire-fighting services available at the airports being used.
- Annex alignment with the ICAO Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air (Doc 9284), ensuring helicopter operations with dangerous goods receive the same oversight as other aircraft.
- New guidance on alternate safe landing considerations for off-shore helicopter operations.
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aviation, ICAO, SAS blogs, ICAO Annex 6, ICAO SARPS, Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Safe Operating Practices, Operation of Aircraft, International Commercial Air Transport, Safe Transport
