Air Navigation and Transport Act, 1936

Application to seaplanes of certain provisions of the Merchant Shipping Acts, relating to collisions at sea and signals of distress.

58.—(1) The power conferred by sub-section (1) of section 418 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894 , to make regulations for the prevention of collisions at sea shall include power to make regulations for the prevention of collisions at sea—

(a) between seaplanes on the surface of the water, and

(b) between vessels and seaplanes on the surface of the water;

and accordingly the said section 418, and sections 419, 421 and 424 of the said Act, as amended by any subsequent enactment, shall apply in relation to seaplanes on the surface of the water as they apply in relation to ships or vessels, subject however to the following modifications, that is to say:—

(i) for the purpose of sub-section (2) of the said section 418, and for the purposes of the said section 424, sections 418, 419, 421, and 424 of the said Act shall be deemed to be the only provisions of Part V of the said Act relating to collision regulations or otherwise relating to collisions, and

(ii) any references in the said section 419 to the master or to the person in charge of the deck shall be construed as references to the pilot or other person on duty in charge of the seaplane.

(2) The power conferred by sub-section (1) of section 25 of the Merchant Shipping (Safety and Load Lines Conventions) Act, 1933 (No. 42 of 1933), to prescribe what signals shall be signals, of distress and urgency shall include power to prescribe what signals shall be signals of distress and urgency in the case of seaplanes on the surface of the water; and accordingly the said section 25 shall apply in relation to seaplanes on the surface of the water as it applies in relation to ships or vessels, subject however to the modification that the reference in sub-section (3) of the said section 25 to the master shall be construed as a reference to the pilot or other person on duty in charge of the seaplane.

(3) In this section the word “vessels” has the same meaning as in the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894 .

(4) For the purposes of this and the next following section seaplanes taking off from, or alighting on, the water shall be deemed to be on the surface of the water while in contact therewith.