AGREEMENT BETWEEN CAA-NL AND 'RAAD VOOR DE ACCREDITATIE'

1 — PURPOSE

To provide information with respect to the consequences related to the agreement which has been made between the Civil Aviation Authority Netherlands (CAA-NL) and the 'Raad voor de Accredidatie' (RvA).

2 — TARGET GROUP

The target group consists of approved organisations in the fields of production, maintenance etc.

3 — TRACEABILITY OF MEASURED VALUES TO (INTER)NATIONAL STANDARDS

References:

• Regeling erkenningen luchtwaardigheid, appendix C, section 10, paragraph 3
• Part 21.A.145(a) and GM 21.A.145(a)
• Part 145.A.40(b) and AMC 145.A.40(b)

The 'Regeling erkenningen luchtwaardigheid' (Regulation airworthiness approvals) and both Part-21 Subpart G and Part-145 require the approved organisations for production and maintenance to ensure traceability of measured values by measuring and test equipment to (inter)national standards.

In order to ease demonstration of traceability, the CAA-NL and the RvA have made an agreement for the acceptance of 'Nederlandse Kalibratie Organisatie' (NKO) accredited calibration laboratories. Based on this agreement, the CAA-NL will accept the following certificates as adequate evidence for demonstration of traceability of measured values to (inter)national standards:

1. certificates issued by NKO accredited calibration laboratories1);
2. certificates issued by calibration laboratories accredited by an accreditation organisation with which the RvA has made an agreement for mutual acceptance2).

1. The RvA awards accreditations to calibration laboratories under the banner of NKO recognition. An NKO accreditation ensures that measured values are traceable to (inter)national standards. The accreditation of calibration laboratories is based on standard ISO/IEC 17025 which is the successor of the former European standard EN 45001. The calibration laboratories which are currently accredited by NKO are listed on the RvA web site: www.rva.nl
2. As the RvA aims at a worldwide acceptance of accreditations, the RvA has, within the structure of international co-operation, signed several bilateral agreements with other accreditation organisations that include the mutual recognition of accreditations granted. Basic principle in this respect is that these accreditations have met an equivalent level of quality. This quality level is verified by means of international Peer Reviews. Accredited organisations receive an accreditation certificate on which the international co-operation is laid down. In this way, equivalence on both European level and on worldwide level is emphasised. The accreditation organisations currently recognised by the RvA are listed on the European co-operation for Accreditation (EA) web site: www.european-accreditation.org

4 — NKO ACCREDITATION IDENTIFICATION MARK

Certificates involved should contain the NKO identification mark or the equivalent of an RvA accreditation organisation being accepted by the RvA. Such an identification mark ensures that the calibration(s) being performed are with the scope of the organisation involved.

In case use is being made of other calibration laboratories (or in case a certificate is issued without the required identification mark) traceability of measured values to (inter)national standards still has to be demonstrated separately by the approved organisation.

5 — DOCUMENT CONTROL

This AIC-B replaces AIC-B 06/02 RV d.d. 27 MAY 04.
This AIC-B has been re-issued because of editorial changes.
More information about this AIC-B is available at: