
Under Canada’s Aeronautics Act, the Minister of National Defence is required to designate a member of the Canadian Armed Forces or an employee of the Department of National Defence as the Airworthiness Investigative Authority (“AIA”). The AIA is responsible for advancing aviation safety by investigating military occurrences and military-civilian occurrences (which are accidents or incidents involving a civilian aircraft and a military aircraft). Canada’s Director of Flight Safety has been designated as the AIA.
Although the Aeronautics Act currently provides the AIA with many similar powers as those granted to Canada’s Transportation Safety Board, AIA investigators are presently not authorized to compel civilians (including civilian aviation companies performing contract work for the military) to provide statements or relevant documents …
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