ETSO authorisations

Applications can be of two types:

1. An application from an EU organization for the EASA approval of a new ETSOA. This requires that the applicant has at least applied for Alternative Procedures to Design Organisation Approvals (ADOA) and a Production Organisation Approval (POA). ETSO applications for APU require a DOA.
2. An application from a non-EU organization for the EASA validation of a non-EU part approval. The application must be made in accordance with any Working Arrangement or Bilateral Agreement. If these are missing the application will be considered as a new ETSOA and the organisational requirements mentioned in paragraph 1 will apply. 

Applications for ETSOA are made via the EASA Applicant Portal by creating a new application and selecting ETSOA - Initial Approval. Form 34 can be used in exceptional circumstances; its use should be limited only to cases when submittal of the application via the Applicant Portal is not possible. 

Compliance with the applicable ETSO – standard(s) as well as Part 21 shall be stated in a DDP (Declaration of Design and Performance). Form 35 is no longer used.

All technical documents should be submitted for the ETSO applications received at EASA after 1 June 2019 only via the Sepiac tool. For the ETSO applications submitted to EASA before 1 June 2019 the technical documentation can be still sent via mail to the relevant PCM (if the size is less than 10 MB)  or via the EASA Filebox  to  the responsible PCM with etsoa [at] easa.europa.eu (etsoa[at]easa[dot]europa[dot]eu) in copy in a zip format quoting the task number of the application. You might consider attaching the Certification Programme in one of the first packages of technical documentation you send to EASA.  

The ETSO (European Technical Standard Order) authorization represents one way (and not the only way) to have parts and appliances approved. This is an optional step which ensures that a part or appliance complies with a minimum performance standard. In all cases, the installer must apply for an installation approval on-board the aircraft. He/she can use the ETSO authorization and he/she complements it to demonstrate that the installation complies with the applicable certification basis for the changed aircraft.
European Technical Standard Order authorizations are covered by Subpart O of Part-21 which is the Annex to Commission Regulation (EU) No 748/2012. You can find a list of the ETSO standards in the published list ETSO Index. The certification specifications for ETSO are published here.  

SEPIAC is a Shared Electronic Platform for Initial Airworthiness Certification to communicate during the ETSO project, after acceptance of a project by the ETSO admin team as a response to the submission of the project via the EASA Applicant portal. This presentation provides information for the first steps in SEPIAC for an ETSO applicant. More information on the use of SEPIAC is accessible in the SEPIAC portal, after the applicant has become a member of SEPIAC and has at least one admin account. How to become a member is described in aforementioned presentation.

The Fees & Charges of EASA are according to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2153.

An ETSOA holder could either hold a Product Organisation Approval (POA) or be linked through an agreement to an independent POA or produce under the provision of Part 21, subpart F.

The ETSOA holder is also required to hold Alternative Procedures to Design Organisation Approval (ADOA). For an APU approval a DOA is mandatory.

The organisational requirements do not apply to applications from third countries that have signed a full bilateral agreement with the EU.

This is not allowed and is explained below. 
 
According to Part 21 subpart O, the ETSOA holder is responsible for the manufacturing of ETSO articles [see 21.A.602B(a), 21.A.607, 21.A.609(a)]. 
Considering the general provisions of 21.A.2, for those ETSOA holders that do not wish to manufacture, they have the possibility to have an agreement with another natural or legal person for the production of the article. In this case, only this other natural or legal person is allowed to manufacture the article and mark it accordingly. According to 21.A.2 an ESTO article cannot be produced by two different natural or legal person at the same time. 
Therefore the options are:

• the ETSOA holder manufactures the article, or
• the one natural or legal person with which the ETSOA holder has such agreement manufactures the article. 

For the one natural or legal person with which the ETSOA holder has such agreement the following has to be considered. In cases where Part 21 Section A Subpart G is applicable, such as to produce ETSO articles, a letter of agreement to produce under Part 21 Subpart F should not be given unless an application has been made for organisation approval under Subpart G, and reasonable progress is being made towards compliance with Subpart G. Long-term production under Part 21 Subpart F will not be permitted.

Yes, an ETSO Authorisation Holder can task different production organisations for the production of different articles covered by different ETSO Authorisations, as long as for each ETSO Authorisation only one production organisation is tasked.

The ETSOA holder can perform minor changes. However, he has to inform EASA about minor changes. Major changes lead to a new ETSO authorization. As a general criterion, a change could be classified as “minor” if it does not require a complete re-investigation for assessing the compliance to the applicable requirements. 

For minor changes to ETSO articles, per Regulation Commission Regulation (EU) No 748/2012 article 21.A.611(a), the root part of the part number is unchanged and the minor change is identified via “open brackets”. Per 21.A.603(b), an open bracket system should be proposed to accommodate a series of minor changes to an ETSO article.

Any change has to be substantiated regardless if the change is classified minor or major; the responsibility is on the ETSOA Holder. 

Substantiation by test does not automatically mean that the change is major.

Examples for minor changes are:

• Part numbers to be added to the list of approved ones (for example to add open brackets)
• Merging of companies and new entity (= change of ownership)

An example for a major change would be the use of a revised ETSO standard. Major changes are submitted through the EASA applicant portal by creating a new application and selecting ETSOA – Initial Approval. Use of Form 34 is not recommended, with the exceptions specified in the FAQ “How do I apply for an ETSO authorisation?”.
 

It is up to the ETSOA holders to decide whether they require reissued approvals to reflect the transfer of ownership on the certificates. In case they decide to have the certificates reissued, they must file an application through the EASA applicant portal by creating a new application and selecting ETSOA – Minor Change. 

Use of Form 34 is not recommended, with the exceptions specified in the FAQ “How do I apply for an ETSO authorisation?”.

In addition, the APDOA holder should notify the Agency by sending Form 81. 

The only way for an ETSO Authorisation to change owner is according to Part21.A.621 a change of ownership of the holder of the ETSO Authorisation. A change of ownership can affect either the entire organisation or only a part thereof. If only a part of the organisation changes owner, both parts have to show that they comply individually with Part 21 requirements for the ETSO Authorisations that will be held by the individual parts of the former united organisation, before the ETSO Authorisations can reflect the new ownership.

When no change of ownership of the holder of ETSO Authorisation is involved and only the ETSO Authorisation design data are changing owner, the original ETSO Authorisation holder should surrender its certificate(s) and the new owner of the design data may apply for new ETSO Authorisation(s), partially using the original compliance data, if available. This application requires that the organisation of the new owner complies with Part 21 requirements for design and production organisation.

DDP stands for Declaration of Design and Performance; it is the central summary document containing the definition and all relevant references of the article. Its informational content could be compared to the one of a Type Certificate Data Sheet for products. In the DDP the applicant is required to state that the article is designed, tested and manufactured in compliance with the applicable sections of Part 21 and CS-ETSO. A template is provided in AMC 21A.608 (Annex I to ED Decision 2012/020/R of 30 October 2012). Form 35 is no longer used.

If the article design deviates from the requirements of the applicable ETSO standard the applicant needs to request an approval of a deviation in accordance with Commission Regulation (EU) No 748/2012. On the ETSO authorizations page we have listed all previously approved and rejected deviations sorted by ETSO standard. If the deviation in question has already been approved by EASA earlier please indicate so in the corresponding section of Form 34. If your request is regarding a new deviation you need to provide a deviation request to EASA. To get the deviation request accepted the applicant needs to provide a substantiation showing an “equivalent level of safety”.

The responsible project certification manager (PCM) will check this document. Before the final decision is taken the following steps must be completed:

1. The PCM includes all relevant information in a consultation paper.
2. The consultation paper is sent to the applicant for verification.
3. The consultation paper is sent out for internal consultation in accordance with the Management Board decision N° 07-2004.
4. Taking into account the comments received from this internal consultation, the PCM modifies the consultation paper for public consultation on the EASA website. The commenting period is 3 weeks.
5. Received comments are collected in a Comment Response Document (CRD) which will be published with the list of approved or rejected comments.
6. The deviation is either accepted or rejected and will be included in the corresponding list. In case of an accepted deviation the ETSO certificate is issued once compliance with all applicable requirements is demonstrated.

Deviations of other applicants can be reused in an application for ESTO Authorisation, provided an equivalent level of safety can also be provided with your design. To find all the deviations that can be reused, one has to look at two different locations, depending on the date of approval of the deviation. For deviations first used in an Authorisation before January 1, 2013 consult the list of approved deviations.

For all other deviations a search function is provided.

To limit the displayed deviation to a specific ETSO enter the ETSO number in the field named search and click on Apply.

To limit the display to deviations for which the consultation ended during a specific period, select the start date and the end date in the calendars that pop up, when you click in the fields named Start date and/or End date. It is important to select every time the day of the month in a popped up calendar before you click on Apply, because otherwise the date will not be updated for the following search.

There is not a generic list; the documents to be submitted are those necessary to show compliance with the specific ETSO standard.

The following documents should be provided to complete the ETSO data package:

• the already mentioned DDP in which compliance is stated
• a description of the article,
• a compliance check list (i.e. a list of the methods/means which are used to show compliance to each single requirement (test, analysis etc.)),
• a project time schedule,
• a matrix/report for the requirements not covered by testing or analysis based on test.
• applicable test- and qualification plans/reports

From an ETSO authorization perspective, it must be demonstrated that the military embedded functions do not interfere with the CS-ETSO functions. EASA will not investigate the military functions. Moreover, if there are some restrictions regarding access to design data for the military functions, EASA cannot offer any special guarantee for the special access and protection of military data. So far, there has been some case by case arrangements in order to delegate the technical investigation to NAAs which can offer resources that comply with military requirements for special data access and protection.

If the article is designed exclusively for military use, EASA is not legally competent to issue an approval.

Personnel parachutes within the scope of EASA are only emergency parachutes for glider and aerobatics pilots. All other parachutes (recreational, tandem etc.) are under the responsibility of the relevant Member States. EASA has published a list of parachute approvals granted by NAAs prior to EASA, which fall under the EASA responsibility. Click here for details.

Emergency parachutes are not installed on aircraft as a component, except when they are a part of the type design. As a consequence, emergency parachutes are not subject to the continuing airworthiness / maintenance requirements of Commission Regulation (EU) No 1321/2014 (in particular its Part M and Part ML), except when they are a part of the type design.

The owner of the emergency parachute is responsible for keeping the emergency parachute in a proper condition in accordance with the approved instructions published by the manufacturer. In particular: 

• Rigging of emergency parachutes shall be performed in accordance with the approved instructions published by the manufacturer. There might be additional national regulations which might also have to be considered.
• Any repair or maintenance, other than rigging, in accordance with the approved instructions, should be carried out only by either the parachute manufacturer or an organisation which is authorised by the manufacturer.

Furthermore, when carried on board aircraft, relevant mandatory safety information issued by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), including airworthiness directives, need to be complied with, as required by either point ORO.GEN.155 (b) or point NCO.GEN.145 (b) of Commission Regulation (EU) No 965/2012,  point SAO.GEN.120 (b) of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1976, or point  BOP.BAS.020 of Commission Regulation (EU) 2018/395.

Under Rulemaking Task RMT.0727, EASA is currently developing the implementing rules for the certification of non-installed equipment in accordance with Article 13 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1139. Ultimately, those future rules may contain requirements for the maintenance of non-installed equipment, and emergency parachutes may be(come) subject to those.

The lists of ETSO and JTSO certified articles are available here. There you will also find a list of parachutes under the responsibility of EASA. However please note that this list is complete only with regard to the ETSO authorizations and might not contain all JTSO certified articles.

Any article approved or validated by any member state before the establishment of EASA is deemed to be 'Grandfathered' under Commission Regulation (EU) No 748/2012 Article 6 .  You can find the  JAA approvals listed on our website.

There is a large number of old national approvals which were issued before 28^th September 2003 but due to the lack of full national records a comprehensive database could not be published. We recommend any enquirer to contact the approval holder (manufacturer of the article) and check with them directly whether they have received any national approval for the subject article. Another option would be to check with the NAA that issued the approval.

In general the following applies for grandfathering:

Approvals issued during one of the  time periods indicated with “validation required” are not grandfathered and need validation by EASA. EASA approvals and grandfathered approvals are valid in all EU member states as well as Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

An ETSOA can be validated in a third country provided there is a bilateral agreement or working arrangement in place; see the list published here.  Applications should be made through EASA Form 41. Based on the bilateral agreement, EASA will carry out the technical investigation on behalf of the foreign authority. EASA will provide you with a quote on how many hours would be needed to perform this technical investigation.

Please note that some foreign authorities have special policies regarding validations. The applicable technical documents should be provided in electronic format (no paper), also for FAA validations. Please submit your technical data to the ETSOA mail box (etsoa [at] easa.europa.eu (etsoa[at]easa[dot]europa[dot]eu)) and copy the responsible PCM. Files larger than 10 MB should be submitted via EASA filebox, https://filebox.easa.europa.eu/

(Please copy the PCM and etsoa [at] easa.europa.eu (etsoa[at]easa[dot]europa[dot]eu)).

After 2^nd March 2016 (issue date of TIP Rev 5, later on replaced by TIP Rev 6 issued on 22nd September 2017), the TSOA/ETSOA reciprocal acceptance is the process by which the importing authority will accept the exporting authority’s approval of a TSO article without the importing authority issuing an approval. In plain language, this means the FAA will accept an EASA ETSOA for an article from the European Union (EU) and the FAA will no longer issue a Letter of TSO Design Approval (LODA). Likewise, EASA will accept the FAA’s TSOA for an article from the United States without issuing an ETSOA.

New validation requests will not be accepted.

Related documents:

• Bilateral Agreement: EU - USA

There is a formal publication of CS-ETSO as well as a more user-friendly informative provision of the individual ETSOs . 

The download section and the related content section of the ETSO section of the EASA homepage provide other useful information to be downloaded.

EASA has documented how an approval can be issued by the Agency to an organisation under the regulatory oversight of the FAA for a part designed under their PMA system. Refer to EASA policy in ED Decision 2007/003/C.

If you plan to surrender the ETSO authorisation of your equipment, please bear in mind that, even if your company stopped manufacturing it a long time ago, there could still be units in service. In general the ETSO authorisation needs to be in place for continued airworthiness purposes. At the first airworthiness related issue occurring in service, EASA might issue an AD to mandate removal from service of the equipment whose certificate was surrendered.

In order to have an ETSO certificate surrendered please send an e-mail request (application form not available) to applicant.services [at] easa.europa.eu. State the approval number and the reason for the surrender. You will receive a confirmation e-mail containing the next steps, which are usually:

• allocation of the surrender exercise to EASA PCM 
• acceptance of the request for surrender
• notification of all ICAO states about the surrender
• update the list of EASA ETSO authorisations
• notification of the surrender to the public.

Once the surrender has been accepted you will receive a decision letter and you will have to return the original certificates to EASA.

The Certification Information is published on the EASA website on the latest news page and also under the Type Certificates Information page.

The EASA Form 1 is the Authorised Release Certificate released by a POA holder for stating that a product, a part, or a component was manufactured in accordance with approved/not approved design data. NB: the same for is suitable for Maintenance Organization as well. Exhaustive explanation how to fill the Form 1, can be found in Appendix I of Part 21 (page 87).

Copies of Global Systems, Inc. document “Minimum Performance Standards (MPS) for the Airborne Navigation Data Storage System,” dated March 31, 1983 may be purchased from Global Systems, Inc., 2144 Michelson Drive, Irvine, California 92715, ATTN: Production Manager, Navigation Data, Telephone: (714) 851-0119. 

In 1985 the cost for a single copy was $10.00 to cover postage and handling. Global Systems, Inc., permited the document to be reproduced and used without further authorization.