FlightCom – August 2019

FlightCom Magazine 28

IOSA has been offered to African
governments and airlines free of charge,
with various workshops held with airlines,
regulators and stakeholders. IATA met its
target of bringing ten additional African-
based airlines onto the IOSA registry by
2015.
This is important as the public’s
perception of African airlines is that they
are dangerous – more dangerous than
alternative modes of transport such as trains
and buses. For this reason, airlines not only
have to compete against these ground-based
modes of transport on price – but also on
safety. This will require a major education
and marketing initiative.
In the opinion of this writer, the key
factors behind the high accident rates are:

1. Inadequate pilot training – a large
   portion of accidents are still due
   to pilot error. Preliminary findings
   suggest that the Ethiopian 737 Max
   crash also has elements of inadequate
   training behind it. Noteworthy
   too is the 2010 Ethiopian Airlines
   Boeing 737-800 crash after takeoff
   from Beirut and the 2010 Afriqiyah
   Airways Flight 771 Airbus A330
   crash at Tripoli. Both were pilot error
   that would not have occurred in pilots
   trained to full first world standards.


2. Poor regulatory oversight, it is
   difficult for the regulators to attract
   and retain quality inspectors and
   to create appropriate regulatory
   structures. The best evidence for this
   is the EU airline ‘blacklist’.


3. Inadequate ground infrastructure
   
   
   • particularly a lack of reliable
     navigation aids and wide coverage
     of air traffic management services
     (ATM). This was particularly the case
     with the 1986 crash of the Tupolev
     Tu-134 transporting Mozambique
     President Samora Machel.
   
   
   
   


4. Operation of obsolete equipment
   
   
   • due to a shortage of capital many
     airlines operate older generation
     western aircraft such as Boeing 727s
     and ‘classic’ Boeing 737s and in
     particular Russian turboprop aircraft.
     Again the Samora Machel crash is a
     good example.
   
   
   
   


5. The environment – which has vast
   distances and often severe weather

in the form of huge thunderstorms,

especially in the Inter Tropical

Convergence Zone. This was partly

responsible for the crash of the

Kenya Airways Flight KQ507 New

Generation Boeing 737-800 into a

swamp at Douala when it took off at

midnight into a thunderstorm.

6. Inadequate Safety Management
   Systems (SMS). The suicide of
   the LAM flight TM 470 pilot who
   deliberately crashed an Embraer 190
   in Northern Namibia is a case in point
   as he had requested to be grounded
   for depression.


7. Poor maintenance. African airline
   fleets are generally older than average,
   requiring more maintenance and the
   airlines’ and maintenance repair and

overhaul (MRO) facilities struggle to

retain quality and experienced staff.

Perhaps the best known example of a

maintenance failure was the engine

separation from a Nationwide Boeing

737-200 on takeoff from Cape Town.

Fortunately due to excellent pilot

skills, the aircraft was later landed

safely on the remaining engine.

EU BLACKLIST

The European Unions (EU) Air Safety

List, commonly (but incorrectly) referred to

as the EU Airline Blacklist, was frequently

used by travel risk managers and other

authorities to help determine the safety of

an airline. However, the Air Safety List is

widely misunderstood.

The EU Air Safety List is a list of

The EU decides the local regulator isn’t doing its job.

It smacks of double standards and is the wrong approach.

Crash site of Kenya Airways Flight KQ507.

Max8 crash site at Addis Ababa.