AMC1 CAT.GEN.MPA.141(b) Use of electronic flight bags (EFBs)    

CAA ORS9 Decision No. 1

APPLICATION CLASSIFICATION

An EFB software application is an application that is not part of the configuration of the certified aircraft and is installed on an EFB system to support flight operations. The classification of the applications, based on their respective safety effects, is intended to provide clear divisions between such applications and, therefore, between the assessment processes applied to each.

For the purpose of the following process, ‘malfunction or misuse’ means any failure, malfunction of the application, or design-related human errors that can reasonably be expected in service.

(a) Determination of an application type:

AMC2 CAT.GEN.MPA.141(b) and AMC3 CAT.GEN.MPA.141(b) should be used to justify a classification, provided that the application does not feature design or functional novelties that introduce new forms of crew interaction or unusual procedures.

An application may also be recognised as a type A or type B EFB application through an appropriate approval (e.g. ETSO authorisation).

If an application is not listed in AMC2 or AMC3 CAT.GEN.MPA.141(b), presents a high degree of novelty, or is not covered by an approval (e.g. ETSO authorisation), the classification should be established using the definitions and criteria provided hereafter.

As a first step, it should be verified that the application does not belong to the following list of applications that are not eligible for classification as either type A or type B EFB applications.

Applications that:

(1) display information which is tactically used by the flight crew members to check, control or deduce the aircraft position or trajectory, either to follow the intended navigation route or to avoid adverse weather, obstacles or traffic during the flight;

(2) display information which may be directly used by the flight crew members to assess the real-time status of aircraft critical and essential systems, as a replacement for existing installed avionics, and/or to manage aircraft critical and essential systems following a failure;

(3) send data to air traffic services;

are not eligible to be classified as either type A or type B EFB applications.

Then, the next steps in this process should be to:

(1) identify any failure conditions resulting from potential losses of function or malfunction (with either detected or undetected erroneous outputs), taking into consideration any relevant factors (e.g. aircraft/system failures, operational or environmental conditions) and any established mitigation (e.g. flight crew procedures, flight crew training) that would intensify or alleviate the effects; and

(2) classify the application as follows, based on the assessment of the safety effect of each failure condition:

(i) if there is no failure condition that may have a safety effect, the application should be classified as a type A EFB application;

(ii) if one or several failure conditions with a safety effect that is limited to minor are identified, the application should be classified as type B;

(iii) if more severe failure conditions are identified, the application should not be eligible for classification as an EFB application.

Software applications with failure conditions that are classified as more severe than minor are ineligible as type A or type B EFB applications.

Notes:

— The severity of the failure conditions linked to displaying a function that already exists in the certified type design, or that is already authorised through an ETSO, and used with same concept of operation (considering the intended function but also operational means of mitigation), should be considered in the assessment of the severity of the failure condition of an application and cannot be less than the severity already assessed for this function.

— The data resulting from this process may be reused by the operators in the context of the EFB risk assessment process.

(b) Miscellaneous software applications

Miscellaneous software applications are applications that support function(s) that are not directly related to operations conducted by the flight crew on the aircraft. Miscellaneous software applications are not considered to be EFB applications for the purposes of this AMC.

Examples of miscellaneous software applications are web browsers (not used for operational purposes), email clients, picture management applications, or even applications used by ground crews (e.g. for maintenance purposes).