Following a number of incidents and accidents involving Airlink, Minister of Transport Sibusiso Ndebele instructed the South African Civil Aviation (SACAA) to provide a report to his office on the operational and maintenance health of the airline.
Subsequent to that, on Friday 11 December 2009 the SACAA submitted to the Minister of Transport Mr Sibusiso Ndebele a summary of the audit findings into Airlink. Later the same day, SACAA also met with senior management of Airlink to discuss the findings of the audit. During the meeting with Airlink, the SACAA presented the audit findings in respect of Airlink’s maintenance and flight operations programmes.
SACAA does not make public the audit reports on airlines but the highlights of this particular one were:
* there were no findings in respect of Airlink’s flight operations, however, there were three (3) observations with some recommendations
* in respect of Airlink’s maintenance programme, there were 12 findings.
The SACAA gave Airlink time to provide a plan of action by Monday, 14 December 2009. The plan of action had to demonstrate that Airlink’s maintenance programme would ensure sufficient levels of safety. After assessing and deliberating on Airlink’s presentation and supporting documentation on Monday, 14 December 2009, the Commissioner for Civil Aviation, Captain Colin Jordaan and his team came to the following conclusion:
* Airlink can continue operations
* However, this is subject to the resolution of a few immediate concerns including the submission of a comprehensive corrective action plan as called for by the civil aviation regulations
* Airlink must address the major findings to the required level of compliance within seven days.
In order to monitor progress, the SACAA will make dedicated inspectors available during this period who will evaluate the corrective actions on the spot. The SACAA has placed much emphasis on the establishment of a Maintenance Risk Management programme which is relatively new in the maintenance arena, but is something that has been in place in the flight operations area of most airlines for some time.
Minister of Transport Mr Sibusiso Ndebele commended the SACAA for its swift action and resolution of the Airlink matter: “It is our responsibility to ensure that we do not compromise safety in all modes of transport including road, sea and air. We remain uncompromising in safeguarding the aviation and maritime sectors in our country which have kept world class standards of safety.
The commercial aviation sector in South Africa remains among the safest in the world and serves as the ideal which taxis, busses and private car users and pedestrians must follow, one which places infinite value on lives and operates on a zero tolerance basis to anything that risks life and limb. We cannot drop these standards at any cost,” said Minister Ndebele.
For more information contact:
Colin Jordaan
Tel: 011 545 1027
Fax: 011 545 1181
E-mail: jordaanc@caa.co.za
Media contact:
Thami Ngidi
Cell: 082 888 0852
Issued by: Department of Transport
14 December 2009
Source: Sapa
