§ 117.29 - Emergency and government sponsored operations.

§ 117.29 Emergency and government sponsored operations.

(a) This section applies to operations conducted pursuant to contracts with the U.S. Government and operations conducted pursuant to a deviation under § 119.57 of this chapter that cannot otherwise be conducted under this part because of circumstances that could prevent flightcrew members from being relieved by another crew or safely provided with the rest required under § 117.25 at the end of the applicable flight duty period.

(b) The pilot-in-command may determine that the maximum applicable flight duty period, flight time, and/or combined flight duty period and reserve availability period limits must be exceeded to the extent necessary to allow the flightcrew to fly to the closest destination where they can safely be relieved from duty by another flightcrew or can receive the requisite amount of rest prior to commencing their next flight duty period.

(c) A flight duty period may not be extended for an operation conducted pursuant to a contract with the U.S. Government if it causes a flightcrew member to exceed the cumulative flight time limits in § 117.23(b) and the cumulative flight duty period limits in § 117.23(c).

(d) The flightcrew shall be given a rest period immediately after reaching the destination described in paragraph (b) of this section equal to the length of the actual flight duty period or 24 hours, whichever is less.

(e) Each certificate holder must report within 10 days:

(1) Any flight duty period that exceeded the maximum flight duty period permitted in Tables B or C of this part, as applicable, by more than 30 minutes;

(2) Any flight time that exceeded the maximum flight time limits permitted in Table A of this part and § 117.11, as applicable; and

(3) Any flight duty period or flight time that exceeded the cumulative limits specified in § 117.23.

(f) The report must contain the following:

(1) A description of the extended flight duty period and flight time limitation, and the circumstances surrounding the need for the extension; and

(2) If the circumstances giving rise to the extension(s) were within the certificate holder's control, the corrective action(s) that the certificate holder intends to take to minimize the need for future extensions.

(g) Each certificate holder must implement the corrective action(s) reported pursuant to paragraph (f)(2) of this section within 30 days from the date of the extended flight duty period and/or the extended flight time.

[Doc. No. FAA-2009-1093, 77 FR 398, Jan. 4, 2012; Amdt. 117-1A, 77 FR 28764, May 16, 2012; Amdt. 117-1, 78 FR 8362, Feb. 6, 2013; 78 FR 69288, Nov. 19, 2013]