Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has warned Papua New Guinea 's (PNG) Office of Civil Aviation (OCA) that it will not hesitate to rescind the Australian air-operators' certificates of PNG operators if the OCA cannot meet its regulatory commitments.
The warning was issued after the OCA's deputy director told local operators that manpower shortages meant that his department could no longer guarantee the safety of PNG-registered aircraft. Withdrawal of air-operators' certificates would affect Air Niugini flights and Qantas code sharing between Australia and PNG.
CASA chief Leroy Keith has told his OCA counterpart Sam Keno that "the basis on which Australian air-operators' certificates have been granted to Papua New Guinea operators is that the Office of Civil Aviation has been capable of performing the safety regulatory functions required by the [International Civil Aviation Organisation] convention. If this is not the case, however, as your deputy director seems to suggest, then I will have no option but to rescind those certificates."
Earlier, OCA deputy director of flight-safety regulation Rowan Abaija had told operators that, because of a decline in manpower and inability to recruit replacement staff, "-the Flight Safety Division can no longer effectively function and guarantee the continued safety of Papua New Guinea registered aircraft". Among activities which Abaija says "-cannot now be supported" are airworthiness inspection for imported aircraft; the issue of certificates of airworthiness, certificates of registration and new Certificates of Approval; first-of-type introduction; spot checks of operators; en route surveillance of scheduled operators; surveillance of general-aviation check and training standards; reports on operations inspections; flight tests for check and training renewals; preparation of standards required for check and training organisations and charter operations; and several planned reviews of various safety-regulation and information aspects.
Source: Flight International
