21L.A.3 Reporting system

(a)     Without prejudice to Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council[70] and its delegated and implementing acts, any natural or legal person who holds or has applied for a type certificate, supplemental type certificate, major repair design approval, or any other relevant certificate deemed to have been issued under this Annex, or who has declared the compliance of an aircraft design, or a design change or repair design to it under this Annex shall:

1.       establish and maintain a system for collecting, investigatingand analysing occurrence reports in order to identify adverse trends or to address deficiencies, and to extract occurrences, whose reporting is mandatory in accordance with point (3) and those which are reported voluntarily. The reporting system shall include:

(i)      reports of and information related to failures, malfunctions, defects or other events which cause or might cause adverse effects on the continuing airworthiness of the product or part covered by the type certificate, supplemental type certificate, major repair design approval, or any other relevant certificate deemed to have been issued under this Annex, or by the declaration of design compliance issued under this Annex;

(ii)     reports of errors, near misses, and hazards that do not fall under point (i);

2.       make available to known operators of the product or part, and, on request, to any person authorised under other associated implementing acts or delegated acts, the information about the system established in accordance with point (a)(1), and on how to provide such reports of and information related to failures, malfunctions, defects or other events referred to in point (a)(1)(i);

3.       report to the Agency any failure, malfunction, defect or other event of which they are aware related to a product or part, covered by the type certificate, supplemental type certificate, major repair design approval, or any other relevant certificate deemed to have been issued under this Annex, or by a declaration of design compliance issued under this Annex, and which has resulted in or may result in an unsafe condition.

(b)     Without prejudice to Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 and its delegated and implementing acts, any natural or legal person who has declared their production capability under SUBPART G of this Annex, or who produces a product or part under SUBPART R of this Annex, shall:

1.       establish and maintain a system for collecting and assessing internal occurrence reports, including reports on internal errors, near misses, and hazards, in order to identify adverse trends or to address deficiencies, and extract occurrences, whose reporting is mandatory in accordance with points (2) and (3) and those which are reported voluntarily;

2.       report, to the responsible design approval holder or declarant of a declaration of design compliance, all cases in which products or parts have been released by them and subsequently identified to have possible deviations from the applicable design data, and investigate with the design approval holder or the declarant of a declaration of design compliance, to identify those deviations which could lead to an unsafe condition;

3.       report to the Agency and the competent authority of the Member State responsible in accordance with point 21L.2, if any, the deviations which could lead to an unsafe condition that were identified according to point (2) of point 21L.A.3(b);

4.       if acting as a supplier to another production organisation, report to that other organisation all the cases in which it has released products or parts to that organisation and subsequently identified them to have possible deviations from the applicable design data. 

The reporting obligations of point 21.A.3A(b) of Annex I of natural and legal persons who hold or have applied for a production organisation approval shall include occurrences related to products and parts produced in conformity with design data approved or declared in accordance with this Annex, and, where the design compliance was declared, reports shall be made to the declarant of design compliance.

(c)      Without prejudice to Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 and its delegated and implementing acts, any natural or legal person referred to in points (a) and (b) when reporting in accordance with points (a)(3), (b)(2), (b)(3) and (b)(4), shall appropriately safeguard the confidentiality of the reporter and of the persons mentioned in the report.

(d)     Without prejudice to Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 and its delegated and implementing acts, any natural or legal person referred to in points (a) and (b) shall make the reports defined in points (a)(3) and (b)(3) in a form and manner established by the competent authority as soon as practicable, and in any case, dispatch the reports not later than 72 hours after the natural or legal person referred to in points (a) and (b) has identified the possible unsafe condition, unless exceptional circumstances prevent this.

(e)     Without prejudice to Regulation (EU) No 376/2014 and its delegated and implementing acts, if an occurrence reported under point (a)(3) or under point (b)(3) results from a deficiency in the design, or a production deficiency, the holder of the type certificate, supplemental type certificate, major repair design approval, or any other relevant certificate deemed to have been issued under this Annex, the declarant of a declaration of design compliance or the production organisation referred to in point (b) as appropriate, shall investigate the reason for the deficiency and report to the Agency and to the competent authority of the Member State responsible in accordance with point 21L.2, if any, the results of its investigation and any action it is taking or proposes to take to correct that deficiency.

(f)      If the competent authority finds that an action is required to correct the deficiency, the holder of the type certificate, supplemental type certificate, major repair design approval, or any other relevant certificate deemed to have been issued under this Annex, the declarant of a declaration of design compliance, or the production organisation referred to in point (b) as appropriate, shall submit the relevant data to the competent authority upon its request.