82 SA Flyer

OW, this article

is not about stick

and rudder skills

and the dreadful

consequences that

stalk the unwary

pilot. It is about

more mundane

perils that threaten general aviation pilots

and aircraft owners as a group. It’s about

a situation that, similarly, requires deft

reaction to recover stability and counter the

wing drop that will inevitably end the ight.

POLITICS, POLITICS, POLITICS

2016 has been a year of enormous

political upheaval for all South Africans.

Curiously, aviation has been at the centre

of most of the controversy that began late

last year when the Civil Aviation Authority’s

Poppy Khoza launched her “where are the

black pilots?” tirade, closely followed by

South African Airways chairperson Dudu

Myeni’s attack on the costliness of the

national carrier’s mostly-white pilots as

being the cause of the airline’s constant

bleeding of billions of Rand, with no end in

sight.

Turmoil within the ANC government

and pressures upon the Minister of Finance

to bail out SAA once again, and a furore

around Myeni’s lack of qualications and

management skills, led to the remarkable

‘three Finance Ministers in a weekend’

debacle that lost our currency more billions

in value, compounding an already weak

economy and lack of business condence.

The turbulence gave way to a little

positivity with Pravin Gordhan holding the

Finance post again and local government

elections showing a rm move away by the

public from the ANC and its damaging spiral

of corruption, nepotism and incompetence.

But it was short-lived. Gordhan was bullied

by the Hawks and yielded in keeping

Myeni in the chair at SAA and delivering

another R4.7 billion to be squandered on

the ailing SAA. Myeni’s attacks against

SAA pilots have resumed, presumably as

a smokescreen for business as usual –

plundering national resources.

THE WORLD LOOKS ON

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending

on one’s viewpoint, the chaos is not limited

to South Africa’s own infrastructure and

economics, and inexplicable loyalty to the

political leadership of Jacob Zuma, despite

dramatic interventions by the courts and

electorate. South Africa’s aviation sector

is closely linked to the rest of the world

through international treaties which are

intended to standardise and stabilise the

safety and security of international aviation

operations – and other nations are anxious

to maintain these standards and stability

through both their own aviation authorities

and the International Civil Aviation

Organization (ICAO).

Pressure by other ICAO member states,

perhaps most notably China, has caused

repercussions for South Africa. SAA’s

failure to respond to earlier ndings and

provide nancial assurances were likely

behind the dropping of their Beijing route

(China accounted for 14% of SAA’s market)

and China’s refusal to accept South African

airline pilots seeking employment.

More ominously, ICAO will be

CHRIS MARTINUS, PRESIDENT AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION – SOUTH AFRICA

FATAL BASE TO

FINAL TURN

On e O f th e b ig ge s t dan ge rs

faced by cOm p l ace n t pi l O t s

is a n Over sh OO t On th e

ba se t O f i na l tu r n. havi n g

Ov e r sh Ot th e tu r n On t O

fin a l a pprOach, t h e p i lOt

tr i es tO cO r re c t by s tee ply

tur ni ng back O n tr ack ,

in c r ea s in g h is a n gl e Of

ban k a n d t he r efO r e s ta l l

speed. he in st in cti v e ly

tr i es tO l e v el t he wi n gs

a b it b y fe e d in g i n s Om e

Opp O s ite a il e rO n a n d n Ow

the r eci p e is cOm ple t e: th e

ai r cr af t sk id s th e tu r n an d

be fO r e th e pilOt r eali s e s

hi s m i sta ke , h e e n ter s a n

in c i pi e nt s pi n fr O m w hi ch

the r e i s n O r ecOve r y. is th i s

a fi t ti n g m etaphO r fO r th e

ca a , a n d c iv i l avi ati O n i n

sOut h af r ic a?

General aviation is extremely quiet

compared to ten years ago.

www.sayermag.com

performing a Comprehensive System

Approach (CSA) audit on our CAA around

May next year, and are already conducting

pre-audits to check for readiness for

next year’s comprehensive audit. ICAO

has in recent years implemented a

Continuous Monitoring Approach (CMA)

to audits rather than one-time ‘snap shot’

assessments of states’ safety assessment

systems. AOPA’s representative at ICAO

has expressed concern that the CSA audit

may indicate that there are serious issues

which could impair South Africa’s status.

Of course, a failure of such an audit

would seal SAA and other airlines’ fate, and

any hope of short-term recovery as a player

in international aviation would be daunting

indeed.

AVIATION ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION

One big sticking point for ICAO is the

requirement that all contracting states have

an impartial and independent accident

investigation authority. This function has

traditionally been carried out by CAA,

despite its obvious lack of impartiality.

Since 2009, the Civil Aviation Act

has had a very comprehensive chapter

consisting of some 61 sections which

create and describe an Aviation Safety

Investigation Board (ASIB). The ASIB

would consist of a group of people with

unimpeachable credentials who would have

the powers and functions of investigating

aviation accidents and incidents without

fear of interference or inuence from

external political or economic entities

or other special interests. Accident and

incident investigation is a cornerstone of

any safety system, and accident causes

should be the basis of any remedial action,

rather than a system for apportioning

blame.

The Act provides for a ve-person ASIB

appointed through a transparent process of

public nomination, publication, shortlisting,

evaluation, comment and Parliamentary

oversight.

In appointing the ASIB members, the

Minister must be assisted by a panel of at

least four aviation experts. These experts

must consist of a person with aviation

industry knowledge and experience, a

person with aviation accident and incident

investigation experience, a person with

a legal background, and a person with

civil aviation acknowledged technical

competencies.

This two-step approach of rst

appointing specically qualied experts

who then evaluate and appoint persons

nominated by the public has the clear

objective of avoiding the nepotistic, corrupt

or political appointments for which South

Africa has gained increasing notoriety.

Notwithstanding that the Minister of

Transport gazetted a call for nominations

several years ago (AOPA South Africa

submitted three nominations of eminently

skilled, impartial and experienced people),

nothing came of it, with the Department

of Labour citing “practical difculties” in

appointing an ASIB.

Instead, the DoT appointed itself as the

SA aviation accident investigation authority

– and thereupon appointed the CAA to

perform the actual investigation function. It

is doubtful that ICAO nds this satisfactory

at all.

THE DIRECTOR OF THE CIVIL

AVIATION AUTHORITY

The appointment of a Director of the

CAA has had a similarly distorted history,

with Zakhele Thwala having been appointed

Acting Director back in 2010. An Acting

Director may only be appointed for a period

of twelve months, and Thwala overstayed

this period by several months while DoT

frantically sought a solution. It appeared

that Thwala would not qualify for the Act’s

requirements as full, rather than acting

CAA Director.

Poppy Khoza was then appointed

Acting Director. Notices from AOPA and

other industry bodies that the twelve-

month period for an Acting Director was

long past, were ignored. The Civil Aviation

Appeals Committee later upheld the view

that the Minister was not empowered to

appoint endless Acting Directors, so the

Minister swiftly took steps prescribed by

the Act to make Khoza’s appointment

as Director permanent. However, the

Minister failed to comply with Parliamentary

oversight requirements, and there is

therefore some doubt about the validity of

CHRIS MARTINUS, PRESIDENT AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION – SOUTH AFRICA

AOPA BRIEFING

Lack of impatiality with accident

investigations is a concern.

Proposed amendments to Civil

Aviation Regulations are worrying.

84 SA Flyer

Khoza’s appointment.

This is another aspect that causes

concern at ICAO if Khoza’s actions and

decisions are liable to be set aside at some

time.

GOVERNMENT GRINDS DOWN

INDUSTRY

The 2009 Civil Aviation Act is well-

written; however, in efforts to appease

ICAO, CAA and DoT have added to, rather

than successfully implementing, the existing

regulations and by doing so have damaged

GA, by ignoring its needs and lacking the

skills and expertise to make the skies safe

and secure for all.

No effort has been made to assist and

develop the industry on which pilots and

aircraft owners rely. It is estimated that less

than 20% of private GA aircraft are ying

regularly. Somewhere between 25% and

40% of private pilots y a dismal two to

three hours a year. At least 10% of PPLs

y 0 to two hours annually. Of the rest,

the majority y 10 to 15 hours per year.

Less than 10% y more than 20 hours.

Instructors report that about 70% of PPL

renewals have own less than three hours

in the last year.

In private aviation, the future

nevertheless looks positive, with newer

and safer technologies becoming more

accessible, less costly and more desirable.

Economic challenges and regulatory

oppression and inefciency are what stand

in the way of growth.

GOVERNMENT DROPS THE BOMB

At a time when statutory and regulatory

revitalisation of aviation would be welcomed

by industry, a 90-page draft bill to amend

several sections of the Civil Aviation Act

has just been issued by the DoT.

Any hopes that the draft bill will

stimulate aviation or any segment of

the aviation industry are quickly dashed

at the very rst glance. The proposed

amendments are self-serving and appear to

be a pitiful attempt to paper over our CAA’s

failure to comply with ICAO standards and

recommended practices. Most checks

and balances in the existing Act which

promote transparency and consultation with

stakeholders are simply to be removed.

Instead of a consultation with the

public for nomination, shortlisting and

comment when appointing a Director of

the CAA, it is proposed that the Minister

will appoint a Director (now to be called the

Chief Executive Ofcer) from a list of three

names submitted by the CAA Board. The

CAA Board is simply a group of part-timers

who have the responsibility for corporate

governance and human resources within

CAA. Only one of them needs any aviation

knowledge or experience.

The effect of this is that not even the

Minister has signicant control over the

appointment of the Director/CEO. Any

crony can be appointed, without even

a nod as to suitability, transparency or

fair administrative justice. Parliamentary

oversight of the appointment falls away. The

12-month limitation on the appointment of

an acting CEO also falls away.

The proposed ASIB chapter has been

rewritten to allow for the appointment

of a board of investigators who,

laughably, “when viewed collectively be

knowledgeable of aviation transportation”.

There is no qualication required of each

individual.

Implementation of aviation security

measures and appointment of National

Aviation Security Board members now falls

to be undertaken by Directors-general,

rather than the Minister.

The provision for issuing compliance

notices for corrective action to be

undertaken has been repealed. Only

grounding of aircraft and ning of persons is

now provided for.

There will no longer be any appeal

allowed against an inspector or other

ofcer for the refusal of an application for a

registration, licence, certicate approval or

authorisation.

Inspectors are given powers of arrest

without a warrant and may use force to

effect such an arrest.

Regulations may be made to create

any body or institution to “implement and

manage a State safety programme in order

to achieve an acceptable level of safety

in the operation of aircraft”. Basically,

this allows for the creation of any body of

cronies for almost any purpose under the

guise of “safety”.

The most signicant part of the

regulation-making process is the repeal

of all sections of the Act that deal

with consultative participation by any

stakeholders who may be affected by

such regulations. This does away with

the CARCom process and gives CAA

the unfettered right to pass regulations

without any consideration of the right to fair

administrative justice.

CONCLUSION

The proposed amendments will give

the Civil Aviation Authority the freedom to

appoint whomsoever they like for whatever

purpose, and even create regulations

and other institutions or bodies (who are

not accountable to the public) to extract

funds and impose limitations on an already

grievously ailing industry and its end-users.

Unqualied and undesirable persons

can be appointed to positions of authority

and unwarranted remuneration. Even the

Minister’s powers to remove such persons

from ofce are severely limited.

If these amendments are allowed by

Parliament, the base to nal turn of ight in

South Africa will inevitably be fatal for GA.

If the amendments are allowed

by Parliament, the base to final

turn of flight in South Africa will

inevitably be fatal for GA.