National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 1915‑1:2023. It supersedes BS EN 1915‑1:2013, which is withdrawn.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee ACE/57, Air cargo and ground support equipment.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 July 2023.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 5 June 2023.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN 1915‑1:2023) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 274 “Aircraft ground support equipment”, the secretariat of which is held by DIN.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by January 2024, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by January 2024.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This document supersedes EN 1915‑1:2013.

EN 1915, Aircraft ground support equipment ― General requirements, consists of the following parts:

Part 1: Basic safety requirements (the present document);
Part 2: Stability and strength requirements, calculations and test methods;
Part 3: Vibration measurement methods and reduction;
Part 4: Noise measurement methods and reduction.

EN 12312, Aircraft ground support equipment ― Specific requirements, consists of the following parts:

Part 1: Passenger stairs;
Part 2: Catering vehicles;
Part 3: Conveyor belt vehicles;
Part 4: Passenger boarding bridges;
Part 5: Aircraft fuelling equipment;
Part 6: Deicers and deicing/antiicing equipment;
Part 7: Aircraft movement equipment;
Part 8: Maintenance or service stairs and platforms;
Part 9: Container/Pallet loaders;
Part 10: Container/Pallet transfer transporters;
Part 11: Container/Pallet dollies and loose load trailers;
Part 12: Potable water service equipment;
Part 13: Lavatory service equipment;
Part 14: Disabled/incapacitated passenger boarding vehicles;
Part 15: Baggage and equipment tractors;
Part 16: Air start equipment;
Part 17: Air conditioning equipment;
Part 18: Nitrogen or Oxygen units;
Part 19: Aircraft jacks, axle jacks and hydraulic tail stanchions;
Part 20: Electrical ground power units.

The main changes compared to the previous edition are:

the Introduction was updated in relation to new terms, stakeholder relevance and other;
the Scope was updated;
Clause 2, Normative references, was updated;
Clause 3, Terms and definitions, was updated, with 3.20braking ratio being added;
Clause 5, Safety requirements and/or protective/risk reduction measures, has been revised, including the following;
5.4, Controls, has been completely revised, with part 5.4.6, Direction of movements, being added;
5.8, Brakes for travelling purposes or equivalent devices, has been updated with the addition of part 5.8.3, Complex electronic braking systems of GSE, concerning the requirements of braking systems for GSE > 15 km/h and GSE ≤ 15 km/h;
5.12, Warning auditory signals, was updated;
5.13, Standing areas and walkways of GSE, was updated;
5.14, Means of access, has been revised with the addition of new requirements to ladder systems;
Clause 6, Verification of the safety requirements and/or protective/risk reduction measures, was updated;
Clause 7, Information for use, was updated in relation to the part Instructions;
Annex A, List of significant hazards, was updated;
Annex D, Footholds, was updated and all subclauses except of the subclause, Footholds, were deleted;
Annex H, Slip resistance and drainage ability classifications, was added;
the Bibliography was updated.

This document has been prepared under a Standardization Request given to CEN by the European Commission and the European Free Trade Association, and supports essential requirements of EU Directive(s) / Regulation(s).

For relationship with EU Directive(s) / Regulation(s), see informative Annex ZA, which is an integral part of this document.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.

Introduction

The abbreviation GSE means a complete item of aircraft ground support equipment in the context of this document.

When compiling this document it was assumed that:

GSE is operated only by trained persons on the airport ramp;
components without specific requirements are:
1. designed in accordance with good engineering practice and calculation codes;
2. of sound mechanical and electrical construction;
3. made of materials with adequate strength and of suitable quality;
4. made of materials free of defects;
materials known to be harmful, such as asbestos, are not used as part of GSE;
components are kept in good repair and working order as given in the manufacturer's instructions, so that the required characteristics remain despite wear;
by design of the load bearing elements, a safe operation of the machine is ensured for loading ranges from zero to 100 % of the rated possibilities and during tests;
the particular conditions of use and place of use have been established;
the place of operation allows a safe use of GSE;
The GSE are designed for the intended use and any reasonable foreseeable misuse.

The extent to which hazards are covered is indicated in the scope of this document.

Enumerations in this document are not to be considered exclusive; they are compiled according to the present state of the art.

The minimum essential criteria are considered to be of primary importance in providing safe, economical and usable GSE. Deviations should occur only after careful consideration, extensive testing and thorough in service evaluation have shown alternative methods or conditions to be satisfactory. Such deviations are outside the scope of this document and a manufacturer should be able to demonstrate an equivalent level of protection.

This document is a Type C standard as specified in EN ISO 12100:2010.

This document is of relevance, in particular, for the following stakeholder groups representing the market players with regard to machinery safety:

machine manufacturers (small, medium and large enterprises);
health and safety bodies (regulators, accident prevention organizations, market surveillance etc.).

Others can be affected by the level of machinery safety achieved with the means of the document by the above-mentioned stakeholder groups:

machine users/employers (small, medium and large enterprises);
machine users/employees (e.g. trade unions, organizations for people with special needs);
service providers, e.g. for maintenance (small, medium and large enterprises);
consumers (in case of machinery intended for use by consumers).

The above-mentioned stakeholder groups have been given the possibility to participate at the drafting process of this document.

The machinery concerned and the extent to which hazards, hazardous situations or hazardous events are covered are indicated in the Scope of this document.

When requirements of this type-C standard are different from those which are stated in type-A or type-B standards, the requirements of this type-C standard take precedence over the requirements of the other standards for machines that have been designed and built according to the requirements of this type-C standard.

1 Scope

This document is applicable to GSE when used in civil air transport as intended by the manufacturer and contains safety requirements relating to the equipment in general.

This document specifies the technical requirements to minimize the hazards listed in Clause 4 which can arise during the commissioning, operation and maintenance of GSE when used as intended including any reasonably foreseeable misuse by the manufacturer, when carried out in accordance with the specifications given by the manufacturer or his authorized representative. It also takes into account some requirements recognized as essential by authorities, aircraft and ground support equipment (GSE) manufacturers as well as airlines, airports and ground handling agencies.

This part of EN 1915 is intended to be used in conjunction with EN 1915‑2:2001+A1:2009, EN 1915‑3:2004+A1:2009 (for self-propelled GSE) and EN 1915‑4:2004+A1:2009, and with the relevant part of EN 12312 to give the requirements for the types of GSE within the scope of EN 12312.

When EN 12312 does not contain a relevant part for a GSE, EN 1915 (all parts) gives general requirements that may apply, although additional machine specific requirements, to be determined by the manufacturer, are likely to be required.

This part of EN 1915 does not apply to automotive parts approved for public vehicles in the EU and EFTA, when used on GSE for the purpose for which they are designed.

This part of EN 1915 does not establish additional requirements for the following:

operation elsewhere than in an airport environment;
operation in severe conditions, e.g. ambient temperature below −20 °C or over 50 °C, tropical or saturated salty atmospheric environment, strong magnetic or radiation field;
operation subject to special rules, e.g. potentially explosive atmosphere except as regards operation in the vicinity of an aircraft fuel tank during fuelling operation;
hazards caused by power supply other than from electrical networks;
hazards occurring during construction, transportation, decommissioning and disassembly of the GSE;
hazards caused by wind velocity in excess of the figures given in this document;
direct contact with food stuffs;
earthquake, flood, landslide, lightning and more generally any exceptional natural event;
electromagnetic compatibility (EMC);
hazards caused by noise and vibration, see EN 1915‑3:2004+A1:2009 and EN 1915‑4:2004+A1:2009.

While this document gives some basic requirements for wireless remote controls, additional requirements will be necessary.

This part of EN 1915 is not applicable to GSE which are manufactured before the date of publication by CEN of this document.

This specific risk assessment is part of the general risk assessment relating to the hazards not covered by this Type C standard.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 List of hazards

5 Safety requirements and/or protective/risk reduction measures

5.1 General

5.2 Accommodation for driver and other persons

5.3 Driver's cabin where provided

5.4 Controls

5.5 Safety related parts

5.6 Monitoring devices and displays

5.7 Steering devices

5.8 Brakes for travelling purposes or equivalent devices

5.9 Wheel assemblies - Centre split rims

5.10 Touchable surfaces - Exhaust

5.11 Lights and reflectors for traffic purposes

5.12 Auditory danger signals

5.13 Standing areas and walkways on GSE

5.14 Means of access

5.15 Crushing and shearing points

5.16 Securing of load

5.17 Moveable bodies, assemblies and attachments

5.18 Hydraulic and pneumatic systems

5.19 Stability and strength

5.20 Lifting systems

5.21 Lifting devices

5.22 Lifting/work platforms

5.23 Operating speeds

5.24 Towing couplings, drawbars and towbars

5.25 Service connections

5.26 Electrical design, components and batteries

5.27 Fire protection

5.28 Lasers

6 Verification of the safety requirements and/or protective/risk reduction measures

6.1 General

6.2 Guard rails

6.3 Ladders

7 Information for use

7.1 Labels and markings

7.2 Instructions

Bibliography

BS EN 1915-1:2023

Aircraft ground support equipment. General requirements - Basic safety requirements

Current

Published:

31 Jul 2023