72

219. At most, provisions of the kind cited above can have the status of 1.C.A.0. recommendations. In fostering the provision of airport and air navigation services 1.C.A.0. works through a system of regional conferences, whose task it is to examine the existing facilities in a region and make recommendations as to the improvements needed, which recommendations carry great weight. 220. Apart from the performance standards of aircraft, which are dealt with at length below, there are some other matters on which 1.C.A.0. in its divisional meetings and in the Air Navigation Committee has not yet reached substantial agreement. One of these subjects is Air Traffic Control, on which the RAC divisional meeting early in 1948 failed to produce agreed recommendations which could be put to the Council for adoption. The great importance of Air Traffic Control as a safety measure is universally recognised, and, pending international agreement, contracting States are faced with the necessity of instituting air traffic control systems conforming as far as possible with the international recommendations, so far as they have been agreed. We note that the New Zealand civil aviation administration has formulated and introduced such a system. 221. Search and Rescue draft Standards and Recommended Practices have been formulated by the SAR Division, but have not been found acceptable by Council. The great importance of search and rescue systems and organisation is universally recognised. These proposed SAR Standards and Recommended Practices were based primarily on the provision of special search and rescue organisations and not, as it is thought they should be, primarily on the mobilisation and direction of all available resources by the Air Traffic Control. 222. We have observed that New Zealand has in practice developed this latter system, and we are confident that the system at present in use will prove to be largely in line with the revised 1.C.A.0. SAR Standards and Recommended Practices. 223. Other 1.C.A.0. Standards do not call for particular comment, but aerodrome standards are dealt with in Part IV of this Report (Chapter 18). CHAPTER 17—1.C.A.0. DRAFT STANDARDS GOVERNING AIRCRAFT PERFORMANCE 224. The AIR and OPS Divisions of 1.C.A.0. have made proposals for standards governing the take-off, en route, and landing performance of aircraft, and for relating that performance to airfield dimensions. These draft standards have not yet been adopted by the Council of 1.C.A.0., and the United Kingdom, supported by some other countries, is pressing for detailed changes in the proposals before such adoption.