Originally Posted by
Fiordland
My experience with CSA certification is that in practice it tends to be very arbitrary. I have on multiple situations imported equipment into Canada that was not CSA certified as the original manufacture had no desire to do CSA. You end up having to have someone come in and do a special inspection and place there sticker. There are about a dozen companies authorized to inspect against the CSA standard. The level of depths can be quite variable from one inspector another.
I would hope aircraft are more systematic.
What you're referring to is a field evaluation. You're right that the process can be subjective and arbitrary. I'm aware of a situation where an inspector from CSA used a torch to try to light a plastic enclosure on fire. This was on a very specialized piece of lab equipment that was worth more than $1M. The guy was a complete idiot. There are other companies that perform this service and they tend to be more reasonable.
I'm sure the process for aircraft is more systematic, but as we have seen with the 737 MAX, things can slip through the cracks even with FAA.