CASA advises on fire fighting tools

CASA has issued new advice for aircraft owners, operators and maintainers on aircraft fire fighting equipment and systems.

The advice covers both hand-held portable fire extinguishers and fixed fire fighting systems and is relevant to aircraft of all sizes. In a recent airworthiness bulletin CASA recommends that regardless of regulatory requirements at least one portable fire extinguisher be fitted in an aircraft in a place that is accessible to pilots. Other areas to be given priority for the location of portable fire extinguishers include galleys, baggage compartments, electrical racks and near crew members.  

Hand-held extinguishers should be capable of controlled flow, be able to be operated by a single person when weighing less than five kilograms, and meet acceptable specifications and standards. A list of acceptable specifications and standards is included in CASA’s airworthiness bulletin, which you can read by clicking here.

CASA has also published advice on the maintenance of fixed and portable fire fighting systems. The Civil Aviation Regulations require maintenance to be performed on fire extinguishers and this should be done to the schedule set out either by the aircraft or fire extinguisher manufacturer. If no maintenance system exists, one should be developed or the fire extinguisher system replaced.  

Maintenance and overhauls should be carried out more often than scheduled in ‘aggressive’ environments such as near the coast as CASA has reports of corrosion to the neck of hand-held fire bottles caused by a high salt environment.  

Extinguishers near the floor must be checked regularly for damage from bags or from passenger traffic. Any fire extinguisher defects should be reported to CASA through the Service Difficulty Reporting System.

Read CASA’s Maintenance of Fire Extinguishing Systems airworthiness bulletin here.