While delays in the establishment of an independent aircraft accident and incident investigation unit (AIID) raise concerns, aviation experts believe it is unlikely to ban internationally active South African airlines or international airlines flying to South Africa in the near future.
Last week, business days reported that South Africa was at risk of being denied access to the US and EU airspace. This is because the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) has not yet separated AIID from its management structure. This violates ICAO Appendix 13 of the Chicago Convention, and therefore aircraft accident investigations must be carried out independently and impartially.
However, Guy Leitch, editor of SA Flyer Magazine, told John Perlman of 702 that AIID lack of independence is not a violation of the Hard Act, but rather an ICAO recommendation standard. Leitch emphasized that ICAO is likely to continue to provide SACAA with the opportunity to meet this standard.
The issue came to the forefront following the Ministry of Transport's release of Civil Aviation Policy and Law: A Comprehensive Draft Civil Aviation Policy. In its 2007 and 2017 audits, ICAO said it discovered that AIID's functional independence was undermined by its administrative relationship with SACAA, creating conflicts of interest, and that South African airlines could have access to the company and the EU airspace.
Conflict of interest
“In investigating an accident or incident, one of the first important things an investigation will consider is the omissions by the safety regulator in terms of licenses issued to aircraft, crews, engineers and maintenance facilities. Whether the regulators were conducting regular inspections, and MD's plane Linden Burns explained.
“So, in every accident or accident, the safety regulators will be investigated and scrutinized. It would be a great benefit for SACAA to scrutinise themselves. Turkeys won't vote for Christmas.”
According to the DOT, the lack of compliance with the standards in ICAO Appendix 13 may result in South African airlines not being allowed to jump into US and EU airspaces, and similarly, US and EU airlines cannot jump into South African airspace due to safety concerns.
However, Birns notes that denying access to airspace can only occur in severe circumstances.
“Denying access to airspace can only be done in the worst situations when safety monitoring has had a very serious lapse, or in large-scale corruption that has raised a big question mark about the integrity of licenses and approvals granted by the CAA,” Birns said.
Furthermore, Leitch explained that the airline's capabilities to operate in foreign airspace are primarily managed by bilateral aviation services contracts.
“There are many other structures that allow airlines to operate in other countries. The most useless, bilateral aviation services contracts. In reality, it stipulates that the airline could fly, where it is sitting, seating in other countries, etc.
“So they'll have to be cancelled long before there are attempts to limit their ability to fly to other countries in South Africa. We've come a very long way from that.”
To address the concerns, the DOT said it would be involved with the State Treasury to secure funds for the establishment of a fully independent investigative force.
