Africas New Age In Aviation Safety
Africa remains a continent shrouded in great mystery and delight. The continent is diverse in every sense of the word right from the geography, culture, economic parity and indeed aviation development.
The continent still remains hugely inaccessible due to the high cost of infrastructure that is required to connect such a massive land mass .Aviation however, brings with it the opportunity for the continent to connect its people much easier as opposed to other forms of transport.
However, with this increased growth in Aviation, safety lapses are bound to emanate if measures to have oversight by regulators and safety management by operators are not taken into account. According to the IATA 2009 Global Accident Report, Africa's accident rate at the time stood at 12.21 compared to North Americas 1.11, North Asia's 1.12 and Europe's 2.04.This is quite a worrying trend and sheds a lot of light on the safety standards within the region.
This high accident rate can be attributed to many factors ranging from poor or inadequate oversight by regulators, lack of safety management by operators, poor infrastructure to support aviation, low level training of aviation sensitive personnel, use of old aircraft and aviation support equipment among others.
So the question that begs is how can Africa make amends for such deficiencies and expedite safe flight operations in the continent. In order to correct the years of neglect of aviation in Africa, there is need for a structured actioning of all these issues. A clear structure will move towards addressing the primary areas and sequentially move towards clearing other issues. Safety should be in parallel with the three key stakeholders namely Civil Aviation Authorities, Airport Management and the airline operators. I will concentrate on the Airline operator in this edition of Safety Focus.
Flight Data Analysis In Africa
Africa is currently experiencing a major growth in aviation with new airlines coming up on every corner of the continent. The major underlying reason for this is the cheap lease costs that are now available in the market especially on B737-200, MD 82, and DC9 among others.
With such tremendous growth operators have to affect stringent safety management in order to not only is safe but also profitable. Despite the fact that ICAO recommends Safety Management Systems a compulsory requirement for all airline operators in their jurisdiction. This has gone a long way in creating an enabling environment on which airlines can measure and monitor their safety performance and thus maintain standards.
Though SMS is not fully implement across the continent, certain countries and indeed some operators such as Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines,TAAG Angola Airlines,LAM-Linhas Aereas de Mozambique, Precision Air and Air Zimbabwe have made great strides and are the leaders in this. A strong SMS background by these operators has also enabled them implement Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA)/ Flight Data Analysis though relatively new in sub Saharan Africa, has taken root among the major continental operators and has now become the norm rather than the exception. However, one of the main impediments to a successful roll out of these programmes in most operators has been the cost involved as well as the lack of the necessary human resources to run such a program me.
IATA has spearheaded capacity development in this area for quite a few years now. Recently in 2009 in a bid to even grow this programme further in the continent,IATA decided to offer sponsorship to African airlines that had shown great commitment to safety standards over the years with free analysis for up to three years in a project dubbed Implementation Programme for Safe Operations in Africa (IPSOA).The primary beneficiaries of the program me were six airlines in the continent namely, Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines,TAAG Angola Airlines, LAM-Linhas Aereas de Mozambique, Precision Air and Air Zimbabwe. These airlines have continually demonstrated a high degree of safety and this is evident by the fact that they are all certified under the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) and all but one were also in the IATA FDA program me prior to the commencement of IPSOA.
For African operators in the region to reap out maximum benefits and have successful FDA programmes, there is a need for them to first and foremost have sound and dynamic safety management systems. The FDA program me remains but a component of the SMS and cannot exist as a stand alone.
State Civil Aviation Authorities as well need to implement state safety programmes as recommended by ICAO .Such programmes will have effective oversight on all players in the aviation industry ranging from Airlines, airport operators, ATOs, AMOs etc.Such operators will thus have to come up with Safety Management Systems that will be checked by the state aviation regulators and in turn the regulator will be able to play their actual role of safety oversight.
At the moment the future for African aviation is bright and can only get better, however a commitment to safety is paramount for this.
Regional Safety Oversight in Southern Africa
Regional cooperation on safety oversight is crucial. According to ICAO, only very few of the 53 African states have sufficient civil aviation activities to able to support an effective and sustainable national safety oversight system on their own.
The project to come to regional cooperation on safety oversight in the 15 countries of the SADC region is still facing budgetary constrains. Member states have contributed 39% of the project budget for 2010.As a result of this, there is presently one Flight Operations Expert in the so-called COSCAP project, with the Airworthiness Expert having had to leave at the end of September. With the inflow of a grant from the ICAO IFFAS fund, the appointment of two Regional Inspectors can start.
The COSCAP project can serve as a very valuable resource to assist some of the countries in the region with implementing their Corrective Action Plans.
SADC Directors General of Civil Aviation have requested the ICAO Africa (ACIP) program to assist with transforming the temporary COSCAP program into a Regional Safety Oversight Organization. When setting up regional organizations, States in the region may want to look at putting the retirement age of staff of the regional organization slightly higher than that of the civil services of the countries in the region. In that manner, valuable expertise from retirees may benefit regional safety oversight for a few more years following their retirement from civil aviation authorities in the region.
Africa remains a continent shrouded in great mystery and delight. The continent is diverse in every sense of the word right from the geography, culture, economic parity and indeed aviation development.
The continent still remains hugely inaccessible due to the high cost of infrastructure that is required to connect such a massive land mass .Aviation however, brings with it the opportunity for the continent to connect its people much easier as opposed to other forms of transport.
However, with this increased growth in Aviation, safety lapses are bound to emanate if measures to have oversight by regulators and safety management by operators are not taken into account. According to the IATA 2009 Global Accident Report, Africa's accident rate at the time stood at 12.21 compared to North Americas 1.11, North Asia's 1.12 and Europe's 2.04.This is quite a worrying trend and sheds a lot of light on the safety standards within the region.
This high accident rate can be attributed to many factors ranging from poor or inadequate oversight by regulators, lack of safety management by operators, poor infrastructure to support aviation, low level training of aviation sensitive personnel, use of old aircraft and aviation support equipment among others.
So the question that begs is how can Africa make amends for such deficiencies and expedite safe flight operations in the continent. In order to correct the years of neglect of aviation in Africa, there is need for a structured actioning of all these issues. A clear structure will move towards addressing the primary areas and sequentially move towards clearing other issues. Safety should be in parallel with the three key stakeholders namely Civil Aviation Authorities, Airport Management and the airline operators. I will concentrate on the Airline operator in this edition of Safety Focus.
Flight Data Analysis In Africa
Africa is currently experiencing a major growth in aviation with new airlines coming up on every corner of the continent. The major underlying reason for this is the cheap lease costs that are now available in the market especially on B737-200, MD 82, and DC9 among others.
With such tremendous growth operators have to affect stringent safety management in order to not only is safe but also profitable. Despite the fact that ICAO recommends Safety Management Systems a compulsory requirement for all airline operators in their jurisdiction. This has gone a long way in creating an enabling environment on which airlines can measure and monitor their safety performance and thus maintain standards.
Though SMS is not fully implement across the continent, certain countries and indeed some operators such as Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines,TAAG Angola Airlines,LAM-Linhas Aereas de Mozambique, Precision Air and Air Zimbabwe have made great strides and are the leaders in this. A strong SMS background by these operators has also enabled them implement Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA)/ Flight Data Analysis though relatively new in sub Saharan Africa, has taken root among the major continental operators and has now become the norm rather than the exception. However, one of the main impediments to a successful roll out of these programmes in most operators has been the cost involved as well as the lack of the necessary human resources to run such a program me.
IATA has spearheaded capacity development in this area for quite a few years now. Recently in 2009 in a bid to even grow this programme further in the continent,IATA decided to offer sponsorship to African airlines that had shown great commitment to safety standards over the years with free analysis for up to three years in a project dubbed Implementation Programme for Safe Operations in Africa (IPSOA).The primary beneficiaries of the program me were six airlines in the continent namely, Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines,TAAG Angola Airlines, LAM-Linhas Aereas de Mozambique, Precision Air and Air Zimbabwe. These airlines have continually demonstrated a high degree of safety and this is evident by the fact that they are all certified under the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) and all but one were also in the IATA FDA program me prior to the commencement of IPSOA.
For African operators in the region to reap out maximum benefits and have successful FDA programmes, there is a need for them to first and foremost have sound and dynamic safety management systems. The FDA program me remains but a component of the SMS and cannot exist as a stand alone.
State Civil Aviation Authorities as well need to implement state safety programmes as recommended by ICAO .Such programmes will have effective oversight on all players in the aviation industry ranging from Airlines, airport operators, ATOs, AMOs etc.Such operators will thus have to come up with Safety Management Systems that will be checked by the state aviation regulators and in turn the regulator will be able to play their actual role of safety oversight.
At the moment the future for African aviation is bright and can only get better, however a commitment to safety is paramount for this.
Regional Safety Oversight in Southern Africa
Regional cooperation on safety oversight is crucial. According to ICAO, only very few of the 53 African states have sufficient civil aviation activities to able to support an effective and sustainable national safety oversight system on their own.
The project to come to regional cooperation on safety oversight in the 15 countries of the SADC region is still facing budgetary constrains. Member states have contributed 39% of the project budget for 2010.As a result of this, there is presently one Flight Operations Expert in the so-called COSCAP project, with the Airworthiness Expert having had to leave at the end of September. With the inflow of a grant from the ICAO IFFAS fund, the appointment of two Regional Inspectors can start.
The COSCAP project can serve as a very valuable resource to assist some of the countries in the region with implementing their Corrective Action Plans.
SADC Directors General of Civil Aviation have requested the ICAO Africa (ACIP) program to assist with transforming the temporary COSCAP program into a Regional Safety Oversight Organization. When setting up regional organizations, States in the region may want to look at putting the retirement age of staff of the regional organization slightly higher than that of the civil services of the countries in the region. In that manner, valuable expertise from retirees may benefit regional safety oversight for a few more years following their retirement from civil aviation authorities in the region.
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