‘Slow progress’ on air safety front

KATHMAND, NOV 30 -

Nepal has made only slight progress in improving aviation safety as per an audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said on Friday that Nepal’s non-compliance rate with ICAO standards declined 12 percent to 45 percent in 2013. 

In 2009, Nepal’s rate of non-compliance with the eight areas audited by ICAO was 57 percent compared to the world average of 41 percent. The global figure had dropped to 39 percent in 2013. Experts said that Nepal exhibited poor performance by bringing down the non-compliance rate a mere 12 percent in five years.

The eight critical elements which ICAO considers are essential for a country to have effective air safety are primary aviation legislation, organization, licensing, operations, airworthiness, accident investigation, air navigation services and aerodromes.

“The progress shows our commitment towards improvement, but we are not satisfied with it and are trying our best for full compliance with ICAO standards and bring down the rate of accidents and incidents,” said CAAN Director General Ratish Chandra Lal Suman. According to him, the areas where Nepal has scored poorly are accident investigation and primary legislation and working regulations. 

CAAN had invited ICAO’s Coordinated Validation Missions (ICVM) to Nepal in July to validate the corrective measures taken by Nepal to address and resolve the deficiencies pointed out by the United Nations aviation watchdog in 2009. The mission carried out an on-site audit from July 10-16. The draft report was sent to CAAN for its comments before being made public globally. 

CAAN’s Deputy Director General Sanjiv Gautam said that Nepal had made significant improvements in airworthiness and personal licensing among the eight critical elements. The ICAO audit has shown deficiencies in operations particularly with regard to revalidation of the air operators certificate (AOC). CAAN, which revalidates or renews the AOC of airlines, does not meet ICAO standards, according to experts. 

The revised Air Operator Certificate Regulation 2012 (AOCR 2012) that went into effect on Nov 2 says that airlines will not get their AOC before they acquire aircraft. However, CAAN has been reluctant to terminate the previously obtained AOCs of carriers who don’t have any aircraft, according to experts.   

“The operational side is very crucial, and to resolve this deficiency, CAAN has planned to hire an operational expert from Singapore soon,” said Gautam. The ICAO regional office in Bangkok has also pledged to support Nepal in this regard, he added. 

Other deficiencies pointed out by the ICAO audit are accident investigation and primary legislation. Due to the absence of Parliament, Nepal has not been able to fulfil a number of requirements related to legislation and laws. 

However, CAAN officials claimed that there had been significant improvements in accident investigation. As CAAN has been asked to provide its comments on the audit report by December, officials said that a report of the progress made in this field will be sent to ICAO headquarters before it makes its final assessment of the audit on Feb 1. 

Director General Suman said that Nepal’s non-compliance rate would be reduced to better than the world average after the passage of a number of bills that have remained pending as there was no Parliament. “We are also focusing on training technical personnel which will bring down the non-compliance rate further.”  

Gautam agreed that a lot of progress had been made in accident investigation.