Jan. 8, 2018
Those unexpected situations where a crewmember’s airman or medical certificate is lost, stolen, destroyed or misplaced can be costly for business aviation operators, but with FAA OpSpec/MSpec A063, operators can gain temporary relief to allow a flight to proceed.
Last summer, the FAA issued regulatory relief to allow fractional ownership program managers operating under part 91K and 14 CFR part 119 certificate holders operating under parts 121 and 135, to obtain approval of a certificate verification plan that provides 72 hours of temporary relief for certificates that have gone missing. This provides crewmembers time to locate their missing certifications after completion of a flight. The special authorization became available December, and replaces exemptions No. 5487, 5560, and 11152 currently granted to commercial operators, said Brian Koester, NBAA senior manager, flight operations and regulations
“In order for an operator to gain this relief, they will need to have an authorized Flightcrew Member Certificate Verification Plan in place, which can be developed with the help of a pending advisory circular,” Koester said. “This OpSpec/MSpec creates a mechanism for the operator to allow crewmembers that have misplaced certificates to continue to exercise their privileges. NBAA feels this is an important relief for those occasions when documentation cannot be found to ensure continued operation for certificated operators.”
Koester noted that guidelines for developing a plan to take advantage of the relief granted in OpSpec/MSpec A063 can be found in pending FAA Advisory Circular 00-70, Flightcrew Member Certificate Verification Plan.
Temporary verification documents outlined in OpSpec/MSpec A063 are only valid for flights conducted within the United States and become invalid after the 72-hour relief window. They cannot be extended past the expiration date, and operators cannot issue a subsequent temporary verification document to a flightcrew member for the same instance of a lost, stolen, destroyed, or otherwise missing airman or medical certificate.
Any NBAA member operator with questions about OpSpec/MSpec A063 can contact the NBAA Operations Service Group at ops@nbaa.org or (202) 783-9250.
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.