Botswana�s aviation safety faces fresh scrutiny
Boniface Keakabetse | Wednesday November 18, 2015 18:00
If granted, the lifting of the concerns will simultaneously lead to the revocation of a suspension on licensing of new aircrafts in Botswana imposed by Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana (CAAB).
CAAB halted the licensing of new aircrafts as part of conformity to solving the security concerns identified by ICAO.
ICAO’s December visit will be a follow up on the last mission undertaken in 2013.
Briefing the Aviation Pitso last week in Maun, CAAB manager for Aviation Safety Standards, Caswel Stephen said the last Botswana inspection by ICAO in April 2013 made two safety concerns in the areas of aircraft operations and airworthiness. In the area of aircraft operations, the ICAO visit revealed that major modifications and major aircraft repairs were carried out without the approval of CAAB.
This was despite that CAAB airworthiness regulations of Botswana prescribe requirements for approval of modifications and repairs. However, Botswana through the CAAB has since developed procedures for airworthiness inspectors and recently issued industry guidelines pertaining to the approval of modifications and repairs.
At the time of the last mission of 2013, Botswana had just promulgated new regulations, which were in the preliminary stages of implementation.
These were the Civil Aviation (Air Operator Certification and Administration) Regulations, 2013 and the Civil Aviation (Airworthiness) Regulations, 2012 which were promulgated on March 8, 2013 and March 23, 2012, respectively.
Stephen revealed that to resolve the concerns, ICAO recommended at the time that Botswana undertake a structured evaluation of all air operators that had been issued with an Air Operator Certificate. He said ICAO also demanded that Botswana do a comprehensive structured review and evaluation of all the major modifications and major repairs embodied on Botswana registered aircraft.
He said CAAB thereafter consulted extensively with industry stakeholders to discuss the matter. He reiterated that while a lot of emphasis was put on SSC resolution, the authority sensitised the industry on the importance of ensuring continuing compliance with the new regulations in general.
As a solution, CAAB recertified the licences of all the existing 12 commercial airlines in Botswana, which include Air Botswana, Flying Mission Services, Kalahari Flying Services, Major Blue Air, Kavango Air, Air Shakawe, Delta Air, Safari Air, Helicopter Horizons, Mack Air, Wilderness Air and Moremi Air.
He further explained that the operators were granted new certificates and operations specifications on February 7, 2014, which were renewed in 2015 following audits by the CAAB.
The process involved thorough review and approval of air operator’s operational and maintenance related manuals for compliance with the new regulations.
Again, Stephen revealed that all four aircraft maintenance organisations based in Botswana were also recertified in accordance with the Five Phase Certification Process prescribed by the Civil Aviation. These included Air Botswana Engineering, Flying Mission Services, Kalahari Air Services and Northern Air Maintenance.
Stephen said CAAB reviewed records of all active aircraft in the Civil Aircraft Register to ascertain that all major modifications and repairs were authorised by the authority or the former Department of Civil Aviation (DCA).
He explained that historical aircraft information was also reviewed. The authority worked closely with air operators to account for all major modifications and repairs embodied on air operator’s fleet. Some of these were recertified following submission to CAAB by air operators of data substantiating conformity of repairs to regulatory requirements. He also explained that CAAB developed a database for major modifications and repairs data embodied in Botswana registered aircraft.
“CAAB is confident that it will pass the next safety audit during the next ICVM scheduled for December 2015,” said Stephen.