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The purpose of this enactment is to require regulations to be made
to require aircraft registered in Canada that provide a commercial
passenger service to carry automatic external defibrillators on all flights
that have a scheduled duration between take-off and landing of one hour
or more. The operator of the aircraft must also ensure that at least one
of the crew on such flights is trained in the use of such defibrillators.
Small aircraft may be exempted until a later date or indefinitely to allow
for the benefit of experience in the working of the regulations.
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The provision of a defibrillator will enable the flight crew to give
interim assistance to any passenger who suffers a cardiac arrest during
a flight. This reduces the level of the medical crisis by stabilizing the
passenger and it is likely to save lives.
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In addition, it will become less often necessary to divert flights for
medical assistance. As diversions are extremely costly and inconve
nient and can result in many other flights being delayed, the cost of the
defibrillator will be partly offset by operational savings.
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A further problem of unscheduled landings for medical reasons is
that an aircraft may have to choose between landing with a full fuel load
or dumping fuel to land safely. This also would be reduced.
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The regulations will be enforced by the existing provisions of the
Act.
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