The Regulations and Your Training Requirements
Dangerous goods are known to cause both incidents and accidents in air transportation. Experienced pilots and owner operators understand this.
The regulations and guidelines for transportation of hazardous materials by air are covered under 49 CFR, which falls under the Department of Transportation. The FAA, under its broad statutory authority to regulate aviation safety, includes specific hazardous materials training requirements for FAR Part 135 and 121 operators. For these operators, regulations require Will or Will Not Carry Hazardous Materials training to be conducted at least every 24 months.
These HAZMAT training requirements for flight crew and ground personnel, governed by FAR 135 Subpart K and FAR 121 Appendix O, are designed to prevent either packages improperly offered for shipment as hazardous materials, or packages that contain undeclared hazardous material shipments, which indicate the presence of hazardous materials, from being loaded on aircraft that may cause catastrophic damage to the aircraft and even death.
14 CFR 135.505 – FAR Part 135 Hazardous Materials Training Requirements
Here is the actual language from FAR 135 Subpart K that addresses the hazardous materials training requirements.
(a) Training requirement. Except as provided in paragraphs (b), (c) and (f) of this section, no certificate holder may use any crewmember or person to perform any of the job functions or direct supervisory responsibilities, and no person may perform any of the job functions or direct supervisory responsibilities, specified in § 135.501(a) unless that person has satisfactorily completed the certificate holder’s FAA-approved initial or recurrent hazardous materials training program within the past 24 months.
(b) New hire or new job function. A person who is a new hire and has not yet satisfactorily completed the required initial hazardous materials training, or a person who is changing job functions and has not received initial or recurrent training for a job function involving storage incidental to transport, or loading of items for transport on an aircraft, may perform those job functions for not more than 30 days from the date of hire or a change in job function, if the person is under the direct visual supervision of a person who is authorized by the certificate holder to supervise that person and who has successfully completed the certificate holder’s FAA-approved initial or recurrent training program within the past 24 months.
(c) Persons who work for more than one certificate holder. A certificate holder that uses or assigns a person to perform or directly supervise a job function specified in § 135.501(a), when that person also performs or directly supervises the same job function for another certificate holder, need only train that person in its own policies and procedures regarding those job functions, if all of the following are met:
(1) The certificate holder using this exception receives written verification from the person designated to hold the training records representing the other certificate holder that the person has satisfactorily completed hazardous materials training for the specific job function under the other certificate holder’s FAA approved hazardous material training program under appendix O of part 121 of this chapter; and
(2) The certificate holder who trained the person has the same operations specifications regarding the acceptance, handling, and transport of hazardous materials as the certificate holder using this exception.
(d) Recurrent hazardous materials training – Completion date. A person who satisfactorily completes recurrent hazardous materials training in the calendar month before, or the calendar month after, the month in which the recurrent training is due, is considered to have taken that training during the month in which it is due. If the person completes this training earlier than the month before it is due, the month of the completion date becomes his or her new anniversary month.
FAA-Approved FAR Part 135 Hazardous Materials Training
TrainingBoom provides FAA-approved hazardous materials training (HAZMAT) that can be customized to your operation. Our extensive knowledge of hazardous materials derives from our long careers at FedEx, one of the largest carriers of hazardous materials in the world. We include it in all of our FAR Part 135 training and Part 121 training.
Failure to complete the required training can result in substantial fines, certificate action, personal injury, and aircraft damage. Training is critical for safety, because problems arise from materials that people don’t know about, or those camouflaged by generic packaging. The only way to understand how to look for these sorts of problematic materials is through training.
Some of the issues that we’ve seen come from:
Paint – Certain paint products have a chemical reaction at certain altitudes that can produce toxic fumes that affect humans.
Lithium batteries – These carry a risk of spontaneous fires. In 2010, UPS Airlines Flight 6 crashed in Dubai, a crash caused by an in-flight fire started from lithium batteries. The smoke from the fire overwhelmed the crew which caused the plane to crash.
Dry ice – High concentrations of odorless dry ice in confined spaces such as airplanes can lead to breathing problems or even suffocation of pilots and passengers.
Our FAR Part 135 online aviation training software is always available and easily accessible by pilots across the different devices that they use, while providing an intuitive interface and an effective combination of visuals, text, audio and video. We’ve invested heavily in creating our high-quality learning management system that is designed to maximize the learning experience.
To learn more, contact us for a demo or hear what our customers have to say.