ICAO Contracting States have an obligation to perform inspections on foreign aircraft landing in their State. The programme is named Foreign Operator Surveillance (FOS).
In Europe in 1996 the so-called SAFA (Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft) programme started. This programme is now managed by EASA on behalf of the European Commission and is known as the Ramp Inspection (RI) programme. RI programme States are obliged to perform Ramp Inspections on third country (SAFA) and community (SACA) aircraft. During SAFA inspections compliance with ICAO Standards is verified and for SACA inspections the Standards are from EU/EASA. The checklist to be used is divided in 4 main parts. The A items relate to safety items that need to be checked in the flight deck of the aircraft. The B-items of the checklist are related to safety equipment in the cabin of the aircraft. The C-items are related to the apparent external visual condition of the aircraft and need to be verified while doing a walk-around check. The D items of the checklist relate to the cargo compartment of the aircraft and the cargo carried onboard.
This APP provides all the necessary information to perform these Ramp Inspections. It provides for each item of the checklist an instruction how to do the inspection (so called Inspecting Instructions). It lists the most common non-compliances or findings (so called Pre-described Findings (PDFs)) and the related EU/EASA and ICAO Standards.
This APP can be used to perform Ramp Inspection on Aeroplanes and Helicopters that are operated commercially or non-commercially (GA operations). For the SAFA Ramp Inspections reference is made, amongst others, to relevant ICAO SARPs such as Annex 6 part I, II and III. For the SACA Ramp Inspections reference is made, amongst others, to relevant EU/EASA Standards such as Part-CAT, Part-NCC and Part-NCO.