ETOPS REQUIRMENTS

Dear All,

ETOPS is "Extended Twin Engine operation". The ETOPS regulation is designed for any aircraft with twin engines.

Why and What are the ETOPS Categories??

ETOPS: This definition is agreed by the ICAO - Internation Civil Aviation Organization -.

This regulation has requirments to comply with it. They are determined by the FAA, CAA, and other NAA.

The Idea of ETOPS is to make sure that any aircraft categorized at specific ETOPS category will fly to its destination over remote land or over water at which no airport will be available through the route.

There are different ETOPS categorizations. Some of them are:

ETOPS 60 MINUTES
ETOPS 90 MINUTES
ETOPS 120 MINUTES
ETOPS 180 MINUTES

That means the aircraft as example like the one certified for ETOPS 60 minutes can fly to a distination through a route at which there will be no airport within 60 Minutes over water such as sea, ocean or over remote land.

Now maybe an aircraft has been certified as ETOPS 180 Minutes. It can be degraded by the ground engineer to ETOPS 120 minutes or even completely degraded to NON ETOPS if the engineer found it not complying to the ETOPS 180 requirments but it is still complying to ETOPS 120 Minutes.

Example for the above situation: An approved aircraft for ETOPS 120 Minutes must have All the three electrical generators operative for the next flight (Two IDGs) and one APU Electrical Generator. The aircraft received by the ground engineer with one IDG INOPERATIVE. Then the engineer will dispatch the aircraft according to the requirments as ETOPS 60 minutes or maybe will degrade the aircraft to non ETOPS.

For the many complicated factors and requirments set by the civil aviations for SAFETY REASONS and REDUNDANCY REASONS many manufacturer noted that it will be helpful to set four engines instead of two and at the same time many airline found it really advantage to use these aircraft especially for flights which need to cross the ocean.

Sometimes, it is really bad to degrade the aircraft from ETOPS to Non ETOPS as this will affect on the whole airline fleet, time, and money.

To eliminate from all of these factors, FOUR ENGINES OPERATED AIRCRAFT is better in my opinion.

B.Regards
Ayman Shak'ah
Licensed Aircraft Maint. Engineer