Government Liability For The Airworthiness Certification

In recent years,large-scale civil aircraft crashes have occurred frequently.The major air crashes of Lion Air in 2018,Ethiopian Airlines in 2019 and the crash of the Pakistan Airlines in 2020 have triggered discussions on issues related to the liability of aviation product airworthiness certification agencies.In the United States,the Federal Aviation Administration is responsible for the airworthiness certification of civil aviation products.Only products that have been reviewed and approved by the Aviation Administration and granted an airworthiness certificate can be put on the market.As the airworthiness reviewer of aircraft,the federal government has repeatedly been involved in infringement compensation lawsuits after air crashes.As early as 1967,in the case of Rapp v.Eastern Airlines,the court determined that the U.S.government should conduct the activities of airworthiness certification with due care.With the fault in airworthiness certificate,FAA shall be liable for compensation to the victims of aviation product accidents.The"Federal Tort Compensation Act" promulgated in 1946 provided a statutory basis for airworthiness compensation liability.In the context of the dual support provided by statutory law and case law,the US federal government was listed as a defendant by victims of aviation product liability accidents in suits frequently.At present,aviation manufacturing industry develops rapidly in China.China's self-developed aircraft C919 has also entered the stage of certification test,and will soon be delivered and put into the domestic and foreign markets.As the airworthiness certification agency of the C919 aircraft,Chinese Civil Aviation Department may also face the risk of being involved in airworthiness liability litigation in the event of a flight accident.However,the current airworthiness management regulations of China only stipulate in principle that the airworthiness management agency shall bear the liability for compensation caused by its faults in the airworthiness certification process,but the specific issues such as the subject of the claim,the compensation matter and the scope are not clarified.This clause is likely to be cited as the basis for the airworthiness certification agency to assume external liability for compensation,which increases the litigation risk of my country's airworthiness certification agency.Through the analysis of my country's current administrative laws and regulations,the grasp of the theory of administrative law,and the study of the current state of the practice of state compensation,combined with the experience of extraterritorial airworthiness certification,it can be clarified that my country's current airworthiness certification agency is not suitable to bear the damage of aviation product accidents.Liability.Around the above content,the thesis is divided into four chapters.The first chapter analyzes the legal nature of airworthiness certification activities based on the introduction of the connotation and historical background of airworthiness certification activities,combined with international conventions and the practices of the United States and the European Union,and clarifies that airworthiness certification activities are administrative licensing activities under Chinese law.The second chapter analyzes and summarizes the content of the statutory law and case law that establishes the airworthiness certification responsibility of the United States,compares the degree of airworthiness certification between China and the United States,and pave the way for my country's lack of a system basis for the establishment of airworthiness certification liability.The third chapter demonstrates that the Chinese government lacks the legal and practical basis to bear the liability for airworthiness review and compensation through the analysis of my country's administrative and civil laws and regulations and the judicial practice of national administrative compensation.Chapter 4 reviews China's current airworthiness management regulations and proposes amendments,and proposes the establishment of an airworthiness review and compensation litigation prevention mechanism within and outside my country,with a view to contributing to reducing the litigation risk of my country's airworthiness review agencies.