Except for balloons, during critical phases of flight or whenever deemed necessary by the pilot-in-command in the interest of safety, the crew member shall be restrained at his/her assigned station unless otherwise specified in the checklist.

1. This Regulation lays down the requirements on procedures for flight plans in the pre-flight phase in order to ensure the consistency of flight plans, repetitive flight plans and associated update messages between operators, pilots and air traffic services units through the Integrated Initial Flight Plan Processing System, either in the period preceding the first delivery of air traffic control clearance for flights taking off from within the airspace covered by this Regulation or in the period preceding entry into that airspace for other flights.

7. ATC units shall, during the pre-flight phase, make available through IFPS any necessary changes affecting the route or flight level key items of a flight plan that could affect the safe conduct of a flight, for flight plans and associated update messages previously received by them from IFPS.

‘initial flight plan’ means the flight plan initially submitted by the originator including changes, if any, initiated and accepted by pilots, operators, an ATS unit or the centralised service for flight planning processing and distribution of flight plans during the pre-flight phase.

These procedures should be complemented by provisions obliging operators, pilots, air traffic services units and various originators of flight plans to ensure that the key items of flight plans held by them remain consistent until the end of the pre-flight phase for flights departing from within the airspace covered by this Regulation.

1. The provisions specified in the Annex shall apply to the submission, acceptance and distribution of flight plans for every flight subject to this Regulation and to all changes to a key item in a flight plan in the pre-flight phase in accordance with this Regulation.