Dec 7, 2015- The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) said they expected the International Civil Aviation Organization (Icao) to remove the significant safety concern (SSC) tag given to Nepal by July 2016 since most of the safety problems it had raised had been dealt with.
After the global aviation watchdog cancels the SSC, it is certain that the European Commission (EC) will take Nepal out of its list of airlines banned from flying in Europe by December 2016, the civil aviation regulator said on Monday.
On December 5, 2013, the EU had put Nepal on its air safety list, banning all carriers certified in Nepal from flying into the EU because of significant safety deficiencies requiring decisive action.
International airlines and travelers hesitate to travel to a country whose air safety has been questioned by Icao and the EC.
“We have made a number of improvements to resolve the deficiencies pointed out by Icao,” said Sanjiv Gautam, director general of Caan, speaking at a function held to mark International Civil Aviation Day. “Based on the progress that we have made, we are optimistic that we will be considered for removal from the non-compliant list.”
Icao monitors Nepal’s aviation safety oversight capabilities through the Icao Coordinated Validation Missions (ICVM).
In July 2013, an Icao mission had visited Nepal to validate the corrective measures taken by the country to address the deficiencies pointed out by the global aviation watchdog in 2009. The mission carried out an on-site audit from July 10-16.
Unsatisfied with Nepal’s progress, Icao had given the SSC tag to Nepal’s aviation sector in its audit report issued in August 2013. Icao has grave concerns about Nepal’s air safety and has placed it among the 12 worst performing nations which are Botswana, Kazakhstan, Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Angola, Djibouti, Eritrea, Haiti, Lebanon, Malawi, Papua New Guinea and Thailand. Thailand was the latest country to join the list.
Nepal was red-flagged on “operations”, among the eight critical elements of safety oversight, due to the large number of aircraft accidents and incidents between 2009 and 2012, with at least two passenger aircraft crashing annually.
“We have planned to invite the Icao revalidation mission in March-April 2016. By that time, Nepal should have addressed all the deficiencies, and we have made many improvements to satisfy them,” he said, adding that the re-validation mission would publish Nepal’s report by July 2016.
After we have been cleared by Icao, Nepal’s agenda would then be discussed at the Aviation Safety Committee meeting of the EC in Brussels, Belgium in November to reassess whether the country should be kept on the air safety list for a longer term.
“The Icao re-validation mission is crucial as we won’t be able to have Nepali carriers removed from the EU’s blacklist unless the SSC is eliminated,” Gautam said. The re-validation mission is normally invited by a state when it is fully confident that it has fulfilled all the compliance with international safety standards.
Gautam claimed that significant improvements had been made in pilot licensing and air operators’ certificate (AOC) requirements, the major safety concerns pointed out by the audit.
He said that they had amended Civil Aviation Regulation 2002 to address the deficiencies of primary aviation legislation and issued Accident Investigation Regulations 2014.
Likewise, a human resource policy and training program for 2014-18 has been developed. According to Caan, new air operators were certified in accordance with the new certification manual fully complying with ICAO provisions.
Source: http://kathmandupost.ek
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