Other Emergency Operations Under Part 135

Other Emergency Operations Under Part 135

In order to protect all passengers on an aircraft charter, regulations have been put in place for emergency situations. For emergency evacuation duties, each certificate holder must assign specific duties to crew members during an emergency evacuation. The certificate holder will ensure that the functions, such as deployment of slides, can be carried out during any reasonably anticipated emergency, including incapacitation of other crew members or their inability to reach the passenger cabin because of shifting cargo. The certificate holder must also describe in the safety and procedure manual the functions of the crew members. This is meant to ensure that the crews have an understanding of what is expected of them if the situation occurs.

Many charters operate worldwide requiring them to fly over water, therefore the operator is required to have several pieces of survival equipment on-board. The items include: one approved survivor locator light and one approved flare. The aircraft charters must also have either one survival kit, appropriately equipped for the route to be flown; or one canopy (for sail, sunshade, or rain catcher), one radar reflector; one life raft repair kit; one bailing bucket; one signaling mirror; one police whistle; one raft knife; one CO2 bottle for emergency inflation; one inflation pump; two oars; one 75-foot retaining line; one magnetic compass; one dye marker; one flashlight having at least two size “D” cells or equivalent and a 2-day supply of emergency food rations supplying at least 1,000 calories per day for each person.

For each two persons the raft is rated to carry, the aircraft charter should have two pints of water or one sea water desalting kit; one fishing kit; and one book on survival appropriate for the area where the aircraft is operated and an approved survival-type emergency locator transmitter. Batteries used in this transmitter must be replaced (or recharged, if the batteries are rechargeable) when the transmitter has been in use for more than one cumulative hour or 50 percent of their useful life. This is called an ELT and most all planes flown today, big and small, have them as standard equipment.