Air safety in SA comes under sharp scrutiny

Have SA safety standards of the airline industry dropped or improved over the last five years?

This is the question that a specialised oversight agency of the UN seeks to answer during its 12-day visit to audit which will put the country's civil aviation safety system and oversight capabilities under a microscope.

"The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is currently conducting a 12-day Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme audit of South Africa’s civil aviation safety system and oversight capabilities with the audit concluding on 3 April 2023," read a statement from the SA Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA).

SA was last audited in 2017, when the state achieved an effective implementation rating of 87.39% against the current global average of 67,50%.

The audit will also test the efficiency of the oversight responsibility of SACAA, a state-owned organisation responsible regulation and air travel safety in the country and the continent.

ICAO will also conduct physical visits to selected industry operators to assess the efficiency by which the regulator, on behalf of the state, discharges its obligations.

SA's participation in the audit and requirement to continuously comply with prescribed international civil aviation standards and recommended practices stems from the country being a signatory to the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation .

ICAO council president Salvatore Sciacchitano said: “I wish to take this opportunity to specifically congratulate SA for its strong commitment to the programme, and to ICAO compliance. More generally, to reiterate ICAO’s untiring willingness to engage with serve its Member States as we work together now towards the global safety target of zero fatalities by Year 2030.”

The director of Civil Aviation, Poppy Khoza, said: “The continuous scrutiny of our civil aviation safety and security oversight is what should give the SA public confidence that the regulator will not be distracted in its commitment to keep our skies safe.

"It is not by luck that the airline sector still boasts a zero fatal accident rate in scheduled operations. The current reduction of fatal accidents in the general aviation sector is also evidence that the regulator will stop at nothing in promoting and enforcing civil aviation regulations with our operators,” she said.