Some of the blame for the delay in progress of the ANPA and NPAs can be apportioned to deficiencies with in the JAA management team. These deficiencies should have been addressed by the CAA management rather than allowing for an unsatisfactory document to proceed further knowing well that they, the CAA, would later object to it.
1) The JAA Maintenance Team did not co-operate with Operations Team and were then ignored. When finally brought into the picture, they created three pages of regulation, mostly repetition of existing rules and practice, rather than half a page to cover all that was really necessary.
2) Apart from the A-NPA, which was radically altered in basic principle without the agreement of the Single Engine-IMC Working Group, Revision 1 was needed to cover the new Maintenance section.
3) NPA Revision 2 was then required because JAA HQ changed its mind and decided that they had to have comments on the whole, rather than the new parts, etc, etc.
4) Some NAAs have claimed insufficient resources available to deal with the subject.
5) Other key authorities have not participated in the Working Group for long periods, or hardly at all.
6) Several authorities raised fundamental objections in the final stages without participating in the Working Groups or being aware of the extensive debate on the very issues that they raised. The UK CAA was guilty of these tactics.
7) Exhaustive and voracious arguments at JAA Team meetings by CAA staff on matters of principle and procedures thus delaying overall progress. These matters should have been raised earlier and directly with the JAA Management.
The current NPA now stands at NPA-OPS 29 rev2 and because of poor liaison between JAA and EASA and a lack of understanding of the process of transition from JAA to EASA there is now a suggestion yet another NPA will have to be issued. The JAA Committee will now be asked to give their approval to the fact that the NPA now should be made compliant with ICAO recommendations and EASA airworthiness requirements. This is not rocket science the answer is yes it has to be compliant and it does not, or should not need the participation of top people to make this decision.
However a very significant part of the delay can be attributed to a small number of influential senior individuals in a few National Aviation Authorities. These individuals can only work within the paradigms of the aviation industry, are unable to accept the statistical evidence and who for personal reasons