As you all know, I am affiliated to Kimberley Flying School as Safety Officer.... Here are some thoughts:
Our school has it's CAA audit every year in February. The audit document leaves NO STONE UNTURNED in the operations of the school.
Everything gets checked - from fire extinguishers,stripes,first aid kits,maintenance schedule,instructor validity,MOP's,visual hands on check of aircraft - you name it, it gets done! IF things are not right, you receive 30 days to correct and if not, your school operation certificate is revoked! Certain things do break overnight but the physical state of the aircraft shown was due to maintenance neglect eg. bushes on yolk! I do not allow an aeroplane to take off if it is not airworthy or safe to fly! The serious snags affecting flight gets sorted out and that's that!
I have few questions:
1. Who did the audit on that school and allowed it to stay operational ... Is something afoot here?
2. Who did the audit on the AMO side? (Hand in hand with question 1)
3. Why did the instructors of the school not take action - they were prepared to do training in such delapidated aircraft?
4. Were the eyebrows raised only after the accident off runway 35 or has there been an ongoing investigation?
5. If there was an ongoing investigation, how could CAA then have allowed normal operations to take place?
6. Yes, the operator is to blame - no question about that but what to what extent is CAA (or its inspectors) to blame?
7. Many moons ago I challenged the fact that certain aviation affiliated persons worked for CAA - CONFLICT OF INTEREST?
Just asking before I get nailed to the wall!
