Malawi under aviation crisis
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (Icao), a global civil aviation regulator, has suspended some of the prerogatives of the local regulator, Department of Civil Aviation (DCA), because Malawi is failing to meet expected targets, Weekend Nation has established.
As a result of these shortcomings, identified through the last routine Icao safety oversight audit programme, Malawi is rated under what is called in civil aviation as significant safety concern (SSC), a rating that is just above being blacklisted.
Because of this relationship with Icao, we have established separately through the Malawian Airlines, the Public Private Partnership Commission, a local pilot and an aircraft engineer, the DCA is prevented from issuing licences for local pilots to fly foreign planes that the local airline is using.
This has resulted in some local aviation personnel suspecting that the Ethiopians, who are a strategic partner with a 49 percent stake in Malawian Airlines, are favouring their nationals who currently are the only ones permitted to fly and maintain the aircrafts.
According to Icao’s audit information, an SSC rating does not necessarily indicate a particular safety deficiency in the air navigation service providers, airlines (air operators), aircraft or aerodrome; but rather, indicates that the State is not providing sufficient safety oversight to ensure the effective implementation of applicable Icao standards.
The audit shows that Malawi, Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Georgia, Haiti, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Sierra Leone make the list of States under SSC.
An Icao’s final safety report of 2013 indicates that Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan and Zambia have successfully resolved the SSCs identified after implementing validation of corrective actions or mitigating measures.
While Mauritania and Sudan, the report indicates, have met the target of 60 percent of effective implementation of safety-related SARPs and significant improvements have been noted by the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (Usoap) in Benin and Madagascar.
“Icao will continue to provide assistance and coordinate the efforts of the international aviation community to support States willing to improve their safety oversight capabilities,” the report reads.
Malawi Airlines spokesperson Maganizo Mazeze confirmed in interview on Monday that only Ethiopian pilots were flying the planes for the airliner because the local pilots, despite being oriented, are yet to secure flying licenses. He could not be drawn to mention that it is the Icao suspension of DCA that has caused the problem.
“The local pilots trained by the airliner will only start flying the planes once they secure flying licences. At the moment [therefore] Malawian airlines has recruited three foreign pilots and is also using nine pilots who have been temporarily seconded from Ethiopian Airlines,” he disclosed.
According to Mazeze, the ‘seconded’ expatriate pilots are paid daily per diem for their upkeep while on duty in Malawi, a practice, he said, is conventional practice the world over, but which, one of our sources said, would have been curtailed if local pilots were being used.
Jimmy Lipunga, the chief executive officer of the Public Private Partnership Commission (PPPC)— the facilitator of the Malawin Airlines deal—said in an interview on Tuesday that the local pilots were not being licensed because of what he called “complicated regulatory challenges from our Malawian side.”
Director of Civil Aviation, Alfred Mtilatila, has been sitting on our questionnaire for 12 days despite acknowledging receipt on Wednesday this week and promising to attend to it on Thursday and at the time of going to press yesterday, his phone was out of reach.
“O! Sorry, let me apologise that I have not been able to deal with your questionnaire because I have been up and down. But I will respond to your questions shortly,” said Mtilatila about a questionnaire that was sent to him on June 24 2014.
A source close to the Malawian Airlines operations confided in the Weekend Nation last week that since the airliner took off in February 2014 no single local pilot or engineer, despite receiving induction in Addis Ababa on the aircrafts the airline is using, have been allowed to fly or service them.
“Of course the official reason the local pilots cannot fly the planes is because they have not been given licences by DCA to fly foreign planes,” said the source, an aircraft engineer boasting a 20-year experience, who refused to be named because he is not authorised to speak on such matters. “As for the local engineers, no formal reason has been given.”
Another source, a pilot, said on Monday that the DCA is not able to issue licences to the local pilots to fly foreign planes because for over four years the department has been under SSC for failing to fulfil some international aviation standards.
“Until the Icao is satisfied that DCA has managed to sort out these inadequacies, no local pilot, regardless of training, can be issued a licence [by DCA] to fly foreign planes,” said the pilot.
Lipunga disclosed being visited by some local pilots to complain about their predicament.
“They have been here to see me. But I have assured them that the Malawian Airlines desperately wants to deploy them. I am sure they will very soon start flying. There have been complicated regulatory challenges from our Malawian side that has frustrated the ability to fly. The Department of Civil Aviation is required to issue licences to these pilots for the new planes,” explained Lipunga.
Explaining the non-participation of local engineers on the Malawian Airlines planes, Mazeze said the maintainance agreement between strategic partner, Ethiopian Airlines and Malawian Airlines requires that the planes be serviced and maintained by Ethiopians.
“The reason for outsourcing maintenance is that building capacity for such a complex undertaking requires time and huge investment,” he explained.
When Mazeze’s explanation was brought to the attention of the aircraft engineer, he said:
“He should have told you that because the planes are not ours, but registered in Ethiopia, they have found it convenient to use Ethiopian engineers to avoid the hassle of getting the locals to get registered by the civil aviation authority in Ethiopia. The point being that we have an airline that is not providing opportunities to local experts.
First and foremost let me say issues to do with SSC are not as easy as they have been interpreted by Mr. Munthali.
Malawian Airlines planes are leased from Ethiopian Airlines and according to the agreement between Malawi Department of Civil Aviation (MDCA) and Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA) all aircraft are to remain under the registry of ECAA. This means that majority of the safety oversight to be done by the state of registry which is Ethiopia. This arrangement is not new. Some of you may remember very well that Air Malawi at one point leased its aircraft to Rwandan Air and all flight crew as well as engineers were from Malawi. The arrangement between Rwandan CAA and MDCA was to have Malawi perform safety ovesight on the plane while operating in Rwanda.
Same with today’s arrangement with Ethiopia. Now the issue of Malawian pilots not flying Malawian Airlines planes has not been explained properly by Mr. Munthali. When a foreign plane is being operated by a state, local pilots can not just fly that plane. Malawian pilots have licences issued by Malawi Civil Aviation hence they could not just jump and fly an Ethiopian registered airplane. There has to be protocols followed. First and foremost was for Malawian pilots to receive training on these new planes as they have never been operated by a local company in Malawi. Now ECAA was to validate Malawian issued licences to allow Malawian pilots fly these planes. Get it correct here, MDCA can not issue licences to Malawian pilots to fly foreign registered airplanes. No and NEVER…. The state of registry (Ethiopia) only validates or converts licences issued by MDCA to allow Malawi pilots to fly their planes.
Ethiopian CAA based on their regulations said they wouldnt validate crew licences issued by MDCA because of being under SSC. Very true. Malawi Department of Civil Aviation gladly knows that it is under SSC. This is not as bad as it has been indicated by Mr. Munthali. ICAO as a Governing body do place regulatory authorities under SSC and offer comprehensive assistance to such nations. This has been the case with Malawi Civil Aviation.
MDCA came under SSC because of Air Malawi. This SSC came about because MDCA did not provide ICAO with a history file of how Air Malawi Ltd was certified several decades ago. Every airline is supposed to follow a five phase program in order to be certified. Many people working at MDCA now were not there when Air Malawi Ltd received its first Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) to start operations in Malawi. After this was discussed with ICAO, it was agreed that MDCA start recertification process of Air Malawi which was a very positive move by ICAO. The Department immediately started the process but unfortunately it was the time Government liquidated Air Malawi Ltd. So the whole process stalled. ICAO placed MDCA under SSC because of that reason.
Now with the coming of Malawian Airlines, MDCA informed ICAO of this applicant (before certification started). ICAO nominated a team of foreign inspectors who worked closely together with MDCA inspectors in the certification of Malawian Airlines. ICAO was informed and updated on every step during the entire certification process. MDCA followed all five phases required by ICAO during certification of Malawian Airlines.
Malawian Airlines as an applicant followed and met all certification requirements set by ICAO and both MDCA and ICAO were happy to have Malawian Airlines being issued with an AOC.
MDCA after considering its state under SSC, it requested Ethiopian CAA to take charge of safety oversight while it addresses its SSC issues. ECAA accepted. Now as soon as Malawi is cleared of SSC, all these planes will be transfered to Malawi registry then you will see all Malawian crew flying without any problems.
MDCA is currently working very hard to get SCC uplifted by ICAO but it has been a very slow process as it requires alot of finances and being a department under the Ministry of Transport, funding has affected the implementation.
This SSC covers several areas that includes aviation regulations and inspector training just to mention but a few.
I hope with these few remarks, many would understand what MDCA is doing about SSC and how crew are affected.
I fault Department of Civil Aviation because without its lapses then the issues to do with Malawian Airlines would not exist. Maybe this DCA should be autonomous.
I totally agree with the Indipendent Observer. By virtue of being autonomous, DCA can perform very well. Safety can not be compromised at all. DCA is there to make sure that there is safety in the travelling public.