... Authority reviewing systems

The Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA) says it is reviewing its due-diligence procedure for approving all planes to be used in Jamaica for flight training.

This follows the discovery that there were no certificates confirming an engine overhaul of the United States-registered plane that crashed in Kingston in November 2016, killing a flight instructor and his two student pilots.

JCAA Director General Nari Williams-Singh said the aviation regulator would now be deepening the verification process.

At present, the process does not include cross-checking documentation with the establishments or authorities said to have generated them.

“We may have to go further,” Williams-Singh told The Gleaner.

The JCAA chairman, Phillips Henriques, insisted that due diligence has always been done based on international rules but agreed that the regulator may now need to “go deeper” in its regular inspections.

According to Williams-Singh, the authority would also be reviewing other recommendations made in the plane crash report.

Among the findings of the crash investigators was that the JCAA had no written guidance procedure for use by its inspectors in the certification of approved training organisations.

OTHER FINDINGS ADVERSE TO JCAA

- The JCAA Audit Procedures Manual was not in conformance to the Civil Aviation Regulations of Jamaica.

- The authority’s safety oversight of the approved training organisation’s procedures and operations was inadequate.

- There was no documentation seen in the Flight Safety Department files to demonstrate that approved training organization was recertified in accordance with Civil Aviation Regulations

- The Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority’s monitoring system had been ineffective in identifying and making the operator correct the procedural lapses.

- The JCAA has no arrangements with a logistic or salvage company for the removal of aircraft from an accident site to a place where the onsite investigation may be conducted.

- The JCAA has no arrangement for the safe and secure storage of aircraft wreckage while it conducts its investigations.