S.L. 499.9 Art. 17Composition of crew of aircraft.

(1) An aircraft shall not fly unless it carries a flight crew of the number and description required by the law of the country in which it is registered.

(2) An aircraft registered in Malta shall carry a flight crew adequate in number and description to ensure the safety of the aircraft and of at least the number and description specified in the certificate of airworthiness issued or rendered valid under this Order or, if no certificate of airworthiness is required under this Order to be in force, the certificate of airworthiness, if any, last in force under this Order, in respect of that aircraft.

(3) A flying machine registered in Malta and flying for the purpose of public transport, having a maximum take-off mass exceeding 5,700 kg., shall carry not less than two pilots as members of the flight crew thereof.

(4) An aircraft registered in Malta engaged on a flight for the purpose of public transport shall carry a flight navigator as a member of the flight crew in addition to any other person who is carried in accordance with this article to perform other duties if on the route or any diversion therefrom, being a route or diversion planned before take-off, the aircraft is intended to be more than 500 nautical miles from the point of take-off measured along the route to be flown, and to pass over part of an area specified in the Fifteenth Schedule:

Provided that the navigator need not be carried if navigational equipment approved by the Director General and used in accordance with any conditions subject to which that approval may have been given is installed on board the aircraft.

(5) An aircraft registered in Malta which is required by the provisions of article 13 to be equipped with radio communication apparatus shall carry a flight radio operator as a member of the flight crew.

(6) If it appears to him to be expedient to do so in the interests of safety, the Director General may direct any particular operator that the aircraft operated by him or any such aircraft shall not fly in such circumstances as the Director General may specify unless that aircraft carries in addition to the flight crew required to be carried therein by the foregoing provisions of this article such additional persons as members of the flight in the direction.

(7) (a) When an aircraft registered in Malta carries twenty or more passengers on a flight for the purposes of public transport, the crew of the aircraft shall include cabin attendants carried for the purposes of performing in the interests of safety of passengers duties to be assigned by the operator or the person in command of the aircraft, but who shall not act as members of the flight crew.

(b) The Director General may give a direction to the operator of any aircraft registered in Malta requiring him to include among the crew thereof whenever the aircraft is flying for the purpose of public transport at least one cabin attendant. notwithstanding that the aircraft may be carrying fewer than twenty passengers.

(c) In the case of an aircraft with total seating capacity of not more than two hundred, the number of cabin attendants carried on such a flight as is mentioned in paragraph (a) shall be not less than one cabin attendant for every fifty, or fraction of fifty, passengers carried.

(d) In the case of an aircraft with a total seating capacity of more than two hundred, the number of cabin attendants carried on such a flight as aforesaid, shall be not less than half the number of main exits in the aircraft, and in addition, when more than two hundred passengers are carried, one additional cabin attendant for every twenty-five, or fraction of twenty-five, of such passengers: Provided that, if the number of cabin attendants, calculated in accordance with this paragraph, exceeds the number of main exits in the aircraft, it shall be sufficient compliance with this article if the number of cabin attendants carried is equal to the number of main exits in the aircraft.

(e) For the purposes of this article a main exit means an exit in the side of the aircraft at floor level intended for the disembarkation of passengers whether normally or in an emergency.