Dangerous goods may only be transported by air as cargo (including company material such as aircraft components and substances intended as replacements or which have which have been removed) or mail under an approval granted by the State of the Operator in accordance with the EASA Air Operations Regulations Part SPA.DG, except for dangerous goods as follows:
- carried by passengers or the pilot-in-command, or are in baggage, in accordance with Part 8 of the Technical Instructions;
- carried for the purposes excepted from the requirements by Part 1 of ICAO Technical Instructions, for example:
a) to provide, during flight, medical aid to a patient
b) for dropping in connection with agricultural, horticultural, forestry, ice jam control and landslide clearance or pollution control activities
c) for dropping or triggering in connection with avalanche control activities
d) to provide, during flight, or related to the flight, aid in connection with search and rescue operations;
- carried by an NCO or SPO operation in reasonable quantities to facilitate flight safety, where carriage aboard the aircraft is advisable to ensure their timely availability for operational purposes;
or
- carried by an ELA2 aircraft conducting an NCO operation. Regardless, the detailed requirements of the ICAO Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air (e.g. packing marking labelling, documentation, acceptance checks, stowage, etc.) must be complied with.
When considering applications by UK Operators, the CAA will review and verify the following:
- Operator has formally nominated a person to be responsible for the dangerous goods approval
- The ICAO Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air (or IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations) are available to the nominated person and all others that need to reference them
- Policies and procedures for the transport of dangerous goods are established within the Operations Manual and other manuals (see the specimen manual entries)
- Dangerous goods training programme is appropriate and effective (see the checklist for training programmes).
- All applicable staff have been trained commensurate with their responsibilities
- Procedures are established within the Compliance Monitoring System designed to verify that all relevant requirements of the ICAO Technical Instructions are complied with (not required for a) NCO and b) SPO if non-commercial or non-complex.
- The carriage of dangerous goods is addressed within the scope of the operator's Safety Management System (not required for SPO if non-commercial or non-complex).
- When aircraft carry dangerous goods, a copy of the ICAO publication “Emergency Response Guidance for Aircraft Incidents Involving Dangerous Goods”, or another document containing equivalent information, must be available on the aircraft to the crew during the flight.
Complete CAA Form SRG 2807, submit the appropriate fee using Payment Form SRG 2812 and send to the Dangerous Goods Office. Details of costs can be found in the CAA Scheme of Charges - Air Operator and Police Air Operator Certificates.