Provisions on the Administration of Civil Aviation Safety

• Document Number：Order No. 3 [2018] of the Ministry of Transport
• Area of Law： Traffic and Transport
• Level of Authority： Departmental Rules
• Date issued：02-13-2018
• Effective Date：03-16-2018
• Status： Effective
• Issuing Authority： Ministry of Transport

Order of the Ministry of Transport
(No. 3 [2018])
The Provisions on the Administration of Civil Aviation Safety, as adopted at the 2nd executive meeting of the Ministry of Transport on February 11, 2018, is hereby issued and shall come into force on March 16, 2018.
Minister: Li Xiaopeng
February 13, 2018
Provisions on the Administration of Civil Aviation Safety
Chapter I General Provisions
Article 1 For the purposes of implementing systematic and effective administration of civil aviation safety and ensuring the safety and normal operation of civil aviation, these Provisions are developed in accordance with the Civil Aviation Law of the People's Republic of China, the Work safety Law of the People's Republic of China and other relevant laws and administrative regulations issued by the state.
Article 2 These Provisions shall apply to the safety administration of civil aviation production and operating activities within the territory of the People's Republic of China.
Article 3 The administration of civil aviation safety shall adhere to the working principles of safety first, focusing on prevention and comprehensive treatment.
Article 4 The Civil Aviation Administration of China (“CAAC”) shall implement uniform supervision and administration of civil aviation safety nationwide. The CAAC regional administrations shall implement supervision and administration of the civil aviation safety within their respective jurisdictions.
The CAAC and CAAC regional administrations are hereinafter collectively referred to as civil aviation administrations.
Chapter II Requirements for Safety Administration
Section 1 Safety Administration System
Article 5 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall establish and run an effective safety administration system according to the law. Where the establishment of a safety administration system is not specifically required in the relevant provisions, an equivalent safety administration mechanism shall be established.
Article 6 A safety administration system shall include the following four components including a total of twelve elements at a minimum:
(1) The safety policies and objectives, including:
(a) the safety administration commitments and responsibilities;
(b) the safety accountability system;
(c) the appointment of key safety personnel;
(d) the coordination of emergency plans; and
(e) the documents on the safety administration system.
(2) The safety risk management, including:　
(a) the identification of sources of danger; and
(b) the safety risk assessment and mitigation measures.
(3) The safety guarantee, including:
(a) the safety performance monitoring and assessment;
(b) the change management; and
(c) the continuous improvement.
(4) The safety improvement, including:
(a) The training and education; and
(b) The exchange on safety.
Article 7 A safety administration system or an equivalent safety administration mechanism shall have the following functions at a minimum:　
(1) Ascertaining the sources of danger and assessing the related risks.
(2) Developing and implementing necessary preventive and corrective measures to maintain an acceptable safety performance level.
(3) Continuously monitoring and regularly assessing the suitability and effectiveness of the safety administration activities.
Article 8 The safety administration system of a civil aviation production and operating entity shall be examined and finalized by the civil aviation administrations according to the law. An equivalent safety administration mechanism shall be reported to the CAAC regional administration or an institution authorized thereby for recordation.
Article 9 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall establish the continuous improvement system for the safety administration system and equivalent safety administration mechanism to ensure that the relevant requirements are continuously satisfied and the work performance satisfies the relevant requirements for safety administration.
Article 10 The safety administration system or equivalent safety administration mechanism of a civil aviation production and operating entity shall be operated under the continuous supervision of the civil aviation administration, to ensure its effectiveness.
Section 2 Safety Performance Administration
Article 11 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall implement safety performance administration and accept the supervision of the civil aviation administration.
Article 12 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall set safety performance indicators matching the entity's operation type, scale and complexity to monitor production and operational risks.
Article 13 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall set its own safety performance targets according to the annual industrial safety targets set by the CAAC. The safety performance targets shall be equal to or outperform the industrial safety targets.
Article 14 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall, according to its safety performance targets, develop an action plan , and report to the CAAC regional administration in the jurisdiction where it is located for recordation.
Article 15 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall continuously monitor its actual safety performance and adjust its action plan according to the needs to ensure that its safety performance targets are achieved.
Article 16 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall submit the semi-annual and annual statistical analysis reports on safety performance to the CAAC regional administration in the jurisdiction where it is located for recordation respectively before July 15 and January 15 of each year.
Section 3 Safety Administration System
Article 17 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall establish a work safety administration institution or appoint work safety administers in accordance with the law to satisfy all post requirements for safety administration.
Article 18 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall ensure the effective implementation of its work safety input to meet the conditions for work safety as prescribed in the relevant state laws, administrative regulations and rules. Work safety input shall include the following respects at a minimum:
(1) The development of sound rules, regulations and operating instructions for work safety.
(2) The safety education and training for practitioners.
(3) The safety facilities, equipment and techniques satisfy the requirements of the relevant laws, administrative regulations, standards and rules on work safety.　
(4) The work safety inspection and evaluation.
(5) The evaluation, rectification and monitoring of major sources of danger and major potential safety risks.
(6) The contingency plans, emergency organizations, emergency drills for work safety emergencies, and being equipped with necessary emergency materials and equipment.
(7) Satisfying other requirements directly related to work safety as prescribed in the laws, administrative regulations and rules.
Article 19 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall develop safety inspection rules and procedures and carry out safety inspection on a regular basis.
Article 20 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall develop potential safety risk investigation and governance rules and procedures, to find and eliminate potential safety risks in a timely manner.
Article 21 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall develop internal auditing and internal evaluation rules and procedures, and review the implementation of the safety administration system or equivalent safety administration mechanism on a regular basis.
Article 22 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall develop safety training and assessment rules, and the contents of training and assessment shall be adaptable to the safety responsibilities of the posts.
Article 23 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall establish an emergency response mechanism and develop a contingency plan for work safety emergencies characterized by unified administration and comprehensive coordination.
Section 4 Staff Training
Article 24 A civil aviation production and operating entity's primary person in charge, responsible person in charge of work safety and safety administers shall receive necessary safety administration training as required and participate in re-training on a regular basis.
Article 25 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall develop a safety training outline and annual safety training plan for persons taking the relevant production and operation posts, and the contents and quality thereof shall satisfy the corresponding requirements.
Article 26 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall organize and carry out safety training, create training archival, and organize re-training and assessment on a regular basis. A person failing to receive safety education and training or failing to pass the assessment after receiving safety education and training shall not take post.
Article 27 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall supervise the quality of safety training and ensure that the purpose, contents and quality of the training satisfy the relevant requirements.
Section 5 Handling of Accident and Accident Proneness
Article 28 A civil aviation production and operating entity suffering from an accident or accident proneness shall report in timely manner according to the law.
Article 29 A civil aviation production and operating entity involved in an accident or accident proneness shall seal, appropriately keep and provide relevant materials according to the law, protect the scene of the accident, and actively provide cooperation in the investigation of the accident or accident proneness.
Article 30 A civil aviation production and operating entity suffering from an accident or accident proneness shall, on the basis of the investigation results, find the system defects, develop the corrective measures, and prevent the recurrence of accident or accident proneness.
Chapter III Utilization of Safety Data and Safety Information
Section 1 Administration of Industrial Safety Data and Safety Information
Article 31 The CAAC shall establish a safety data collection and processing system and realize integration or mutual visit of the safety data.　　
Article 32 The CAAC shall establish a working mechanism for safety projects based on safety information analysis, including but not limited to the following contents:
(1) Conducting industry safety information analysis, determining the key risk areas, and offering suggestions for civil aviation safety projects.
(2) Forming a civil aviation safety consulting expert group to systematically study and offer the risk control plans.
(3) Continuously monitoring the implementation and effect of the risk control measures.
Article 33 The safety data and safety information shall be used for investigating the causes of accidents or accident proneness, offering safety suggestions, and preventing the occurrence of accidents or accident proneness.
Article 34 The conditions and scope of the protection of safety data and safety information shall be separately prescribed.
Article 35 The CAAC shall establish the mechanism and procedures for the exchange and issuance of safety information.
Article 36 The safety information shall be issued under the following principles:
(1) It is necessary for adjusting the safety administration policies, rules and measures;
(2) It does not affect the enthusiasm of information reporting.
(3) It conceals the identifiable information and generally adopts the form of summary or overview.
Section 2 Utilization of Safety Data of a Civil Aviation Production and Operating Entity
Article 37 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall, according to the type, scale and complexity of its operation and the corresponding safety administration needs, establish a suitable safety data collection and processing system.
Article 38 A civil aviation production and operating entity shall fully utilize the safety data collected to carry out analysis on current safety status and forecast of trends, and shall not use safety data for any purpose other than improving aviation safety.
Article 39 The sources of safety data shall include but not be limited to the following channels:　　
(1) Safety reports, including mandatory reports, voluntary reports and tip-off, among others.
(2) Accident investigation.
(3) Safety inspection, verification and assessment.
(4) Reports on continuous airworthiness of aircrafts.
(5) Monitoring of flight quality .
Chapter IV Safety Supervision and Administration
Section 1 China's Civil Aviation Safety Program
Article 40 The CAAC shall develop and implement the China's civil aviation safety program, to make the safety performance of civil aviation reach an acceptable level.　
Article 41 The China's civil aviation safety program shall include the following four components including a total of eleven elements:
(1) The safety policies and objectives, including:
(a) The safety legislation framework.
(b) The safety responsibility and accountability system.
(c) The investigation of accidents and accident proneness.
(d) The law enforcement policies.
(2) The safety risk management, including:
(a) The requirements for the safety administration system of civil aviation production and operating entities.
(b) The recognition of the safety performance of civil aviation production and operating entities.
(3) The safety guarantee, including:
(a) The safety supervision.
(b) The collection and exchange of and analysis on safety data.
(c) The determination of key regulatory fields on the basis of safety data.
(4) The safety improvement, including:
(a) The internal training, and exchange and issuance of information.
(b) The external training, and exchange and issuance of information.
Article 42 The CAAC shall set an acceptable level of safety performance for the industry, including safety performance indicators and their target values and warning values, to be used for measuring and monitoring the industrial safety level.　　
Article 43 China's civil aviation safety program shall be consistent with the scale and complexity of civil aviation activities. The CAAC shall be responsible for regularly assessing the suitability and effectiveness thereof.
Section 2 Implementation of Safety Supervision and Administration
Article 44 The CAAC shall establish a safety supervision and administration system to ensure the comprehensive and effective implementation of safety supervision and administration. The safety supervision and administration system shall include:
(1) The basic laws and regulations on civil aviation. The safety supervision activities shall be fully guaranteed by law and governance according to the law shall be realized through participation in aviation legislation.
(2) Specific operation regulations and rules. The industry operation regulations and rules shall be developed in accordance with the law to realize standardized and regulated administration of civil aviation production and operation and prevent safety risks.
(3) Safety supervision institutions, personnel and functions. A safety supervision institution matching the scale and complexity of civil aviation operation shall be formed, to coordinate with the relevant departments to appoint sufficient personnel and allocate necessary financial funds and ensure effective performance of the safety supervision and administration functions and realization of the safety supervision and administration objectives.
(4) Qualifications and training for supervisors. The minimum qualification requirements for supervisors shall be prescribed and the initial training, re-training, and training recording system shall be established.
(5) Providing technical guidance and tools, and important safety information. Necessary supervision and administration tools, technical guidance materials and important safety information shall be provided for supervisors, to make them effectively perform the functions of safety supervision and administration as required; and the technical guidance for implementing the relevant rules shall be provided for the industry.
(6) License issuance, qualification examination and approval, authorization or approval. Specific procedures shall be developed and implemented to ensure that personnel and entities carrying out civil aviation activities may only carry out relevant civil aviation activities included in the licenses, permits, authorization or approval after they comply with the relevant rules and regulations.
(7) Monitoring. Continuous inspection, auditing and monitoring plans shall be developed and implemented, to monitor the civil aviation activities and ensure that holders of aviation licenses, permits, authorizations or approvals continuously comply with the requirements of the rules and regulations, including monitoring personnel designated by the civil aviation administrations to perform the safety supervision functions on their behalf.
(8) Resolving safety problems. Standardized procedures shall be developed and used for taking rectification actions, including compulsory measures, to resolve identified safety problems, and to ensure that the safety problems found are resolved in a timely manner through monitoring and recording of the rectification.
Article 45 The CAAC shall set an annual acceptable level of safety performance and determine the key safety work tasks. All functional departments under the CAAC shall develop and issue the administrative inspection outline or administrative inspection requirements. The CAAC regional administrations shall supervise and administer the civil aviation operation safety within their respective jurisdictions.
Article 46 The CAAC shall continuously supervise the safety administration systems or equivalent safety administration mechanisms of civil aviation production and operating entities, to ensure their effective operation.
Article 47 The civil aviation administrations shall, according to the law, comprehensively use various supervision and administration means to intensify the primary responsibilities of civil aviation production and operating entities for work safety, strengthen the supervision and administration of potential safety risks, and prevent accidents.
Chapter V Legal Liability
Article 48 A civil aviation production and operating entity having any of the following acts shall be ordered by the civil aviation administration to take corrective action within a prescribed time limit; and an entity failing to take corrective action within a prescribed time limit shall be give a warning and be subject to a fine of not less than 10,000 yuan nor more than 30,000 yuan:
(1) It fails to establish or operate a safety administration system or an equivalent safety administration mechanism in violation of Article 5 of these Provisions.
(2) It fails to undergo the formalities of examination and approval with the civil aviation administration for the safety administration system that it has established or undergo the recordation formalities for the equivalent safety administration mechanism that it has established in violation of Article 8 of these Provisions.
(3) It fails to develop continuous improvement system for the safety administration system or equivalent safety administration mechanism in violation of Article 9 of these Provisions.
(4) It fails to carry out safety performance management, fails to set appropriate safety performance indicators, or has safety performance indicators inferior to the industrial safety objectives in violation of Articles 11 to 13 of these Provisions.
(5) It fails to develop an action plan, undergo the recordation formalities for its action plan with the CAAC regional administration within the jurisdiction where it is located as required, implement safety performance monitoring or adjust the action plan according to the needs in violation of Articles 14 and 15 of these Provisions.
(6) It fails to undergo the recordation formalities for the statistical analysis report on safety performance with the CAAC regional administration within the jurisdiction where it is located as required in violation of Article 16 of these Provisions.
(7) It fails to establish the relevant safety administration system in violation of Articles 21 to 23 of these Provisions.
(8) Its primary person in charge, person in charge of work safety and safety administers fail to receive training as required in violation of Article 24 of these Provisions.
(9) It fails to develop the safety training outline or annual safety training plan as required, or supervise the training quality in violation of Articles 25 and 27 of these Provisions.
(10) It fails to find system defects or develop preventive and corrective measures as required in violation of Article 30 of these Provisions.
Article 49 A civil aviation production and operating entity conducting one of the following acts shall be ordered by the civil aviation administration to take corrective action within a prescribed time limit and may be fined not more than 50,000 yuan according to Article 95 of the Work Safety Law of the People's Republic of China; an entity failing to take corrective action within the prescribed time limit shall be ordered to suspend production or operation for rectification and be fined not less than 50,000 yuan nor more than 100,000 yuan, and its directly liable person in charge and other directly liable persons shall be fined not less than 10,000 yuan nor more than 20,000 yuan:
(1) It fails to form a work safety administration institution or appoint work safety administrators according to the law in violation of Article 17 of these Provisions.
(2) It fails to organize work safety trainings for the relevant personnel as required in violation of Article 26 of these Provisions.
Article 50 A civil aviation production and operating entity that fails to invest sufficient funds necessary for work safety and makes it fail to meet the work safety conditions shall be fined according to Article 90 of the Work Safety Law of the People's Republic of China.
Article 51 A civil aviation production and operating entity failing to develop potential safety risk investigation governance rules or take measures to eliminate potential safety risks in violation of Article 20 of these Provisions shall be given a warning by a civil aviation administration or be fined not less than 10,000 yuan nor more than 30,000 yuan.
Article 52 A civil aviation production and operating entity failing to appropriately keep materials according to the law in violation of Article 29 of these Provisions shall be given a warning by a civil aviation administration or be fined not less than 10,000 yuan nor more than 30,000 yuan.
Article 53 Staff members of the civil aviation administration abusing power or neglecting duty shall be given punishment by the competent department according to the law.
Article 54 Where a crime is constituted in violation of the provisions of these Provisions, the violator shall be held criminally liable in accordance with the law.
Chapter VI Supplementary Provisions
Article 55 The administrative penalties and other handling measures against civil aviation production and operating entities and the implementation thereof shall be recorded in law abidance and credit information records and be publicized in accordance with the relevant provisions.
Article 56 The relevant terms involved in these Provisions are defined as follows:　　　　
(1) “Civil aviation production and operating entities” means civil aircraft operators, flight training entities, maintenance entities, aviation product model designing or manufacturing entities, air traffic administration and operation entities, civil airports (including the civil parts of airports used for both military and civil purposes), ground service guarantee entities and other entities formed according to the law within the territory of the People's Republic of China.
(2) Civil aviation safety program means a complete set of laws, administrative regulations, rules and activities aiming at improving safety.
(3) Safety administration system means the systematic measures of safety administration, including necessary organizations, accountability system, policies and procedures.
(4) Safety performance means the operation effect of the safety administration system that is measured by a set of safety performance indicators.
(5) “Safety performance indicators” means data-based parameters used for monitoring and evaluating the safety performance.
(6) “Safety performance objectives” means the plan or expected objective of safety performance indicators within a certain period of time.
(7) “Action plan” means a series of activities determined to ensure the achievement of the safety objective and the implementation plan therefor.
(8) “Safety data” means the facts or numeric values collected from different sources for realizing the safety administration objectives and used for identifying sources of danger and safety defects. They are usually collected by active or passive means. Safety data include but are not limited to: accident investigation data, data of mandatory report of unsafety events, data of voluntary report, data of continuous airworthiness report, operation performance monitoring data, safety risk assessment data, data of audit results or report, safety study or inspection data, or any other regulatory data on safety administration.
(9) Safety information means the safety data that have been processed and reviewed for the purposes of safety administration sharing, exchange or preservation.
(10) Acceptable safety performance level means the lowest safety performance level that is indicated by safety performance objectives and safety performance indicators, and that are prescribed according to China's civil aviation safety program or prescribed by the civil aviation production and operating entities in the safety administration systems.
Article 57 These Provisions shall come into force on March 16, 2018.