Air safety concern must be addressed

There was an interesting bit of public relations sleight of hand in the reaction yesterday by the SA Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) to our report – and those of other media – about serious safety problems relating to instrument landing systems (ILS) at a number of our country’s airports.

The authority fumed that the reports were incorrect because they suggested airports had shut down and flights were not being allowed to land. Our report did not say that, nor did any others we could see. The reality is that many of our airports do not have fully functioning ILS systems. That means that, in some cases, pilots are “flying blind” on to South African runways – something which has damaged our reputation as a safe civil aviation destination.

King Shaka International in Durban has been drastically downgraded by the International Civil Aviation Organisation because some of its ILS systems have been turned off.

The reason for ILS systems – although, in fairness, not all of them – being turned off at airports around the country is that the systems must be regularly calibrated and certified to international accepted standards. This process came to a halt in January this year when a Sacaa aircraft with a calibrating crew crashed outside George in the Western Cape, killing all three on board.

It was, however, only in April that a service provider was appointed, after a tender process, to carry out the work. That work has not yet begun because the aircraft being used to do it is coming from Europe and requires permits.

The bottom line, though, is that a number of ILS systems have had to be taken offline because their certification is not current … and more could follow. While we appreciate the crash was an unforeseen event, it has still taken an inordinately long time to rectify what is a critical safety situation.

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