119.73 Flight following service

• (a) An applicant for the grant of an airline air operator certificate must establish procedures to ensure that a flight following service is provided for any air operation that is conducted without a flight plan being submitted to an ATS unit.
• (b) The procedures required in paragraph (a) must ensure that for each air operation being provided with a flight following service, the person providing the flight following service--
  • (1) has the information required under 91.307(c) for a VFR flight plan; and
  • (2) has a pre-arranged time for the completion of the air operation; and
  • (3) subject to paragraph (c), has a time for re-establishing communications if the flight will operate in an area where communications cannot be maintained; and
  • (4) has details of any other arrangements that may be appropriate for the safety of the operation for the pilot-in-command to report to the flight following service; and
  • (5) makes timely notification to --
    • (i) the national rescue co-ordination centre; or
    • (ii) an organisation capable of taking emergency activation action that is acceptable to the Director --
    if the pilot-in-command fails to establish communications within the pre-arranged times under paragraphs (2), (3), or (4).
• (c) An aircraft may not be without communication under paragraph (b)(3) for longer than 30 minutes unless such longer period is acceptable to the Director.