Trust needs to be restored in the existing airworthiness certification model following the B737 MAX airliner losses, which have prompted a worldwide crisis of confidence in the model that has been in place for decades, says Airlines Association of Southern Africa ceo, Chris Zweigenthal.
Following several years of improving aviation safety in Africa, an Ethiopian Airlines B737 MAX crashed in March this year, following a B737 MAX Lion Air fatality in Indonesia in 2018, together killing 346 people.
Chris’s comments, made at the 49th Annual National Assembly of AASA in Réunion this month, came in the wake of a damning report by an international Joint Authorities Technical Review panel slamming Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration on how they assessed and approved the design of the B737 MAX automated flight control system implicated in the two fatal airliner crashes. The report also questioned how systems on the MAX were certified as derivative of the now 50-year-old aircraft design.
Chris reiterated that it raised serious questions about aircraft design, technology and certification; pilot training and recruiting standards; and human factors on the flight deck. “Our entire industry needs certainty from the safety regulators in each state, on how they will recognise airworthiness certification programmes run by authorities in other countries. This is of particular importance in countries, including those in the SADC and elsewhere in Africa, which, until now, have relied on their counterparts in the US, Europe, Canada and Brazil to vouch for the safety of new aircraft and their engines.”
He said changes to safety, regulatory and airspace management systems were also required to accommodate an increasing fleet of unmanned airborne systems that were taking on commercial air transport roles. “We are no longer talking about gimmicky Christmas toys, but sophisticated aircraft. They are about to revolutionise the logistics industry in tandem with a boom in e-commerce and online shopping. Airbus, Boeing, Embraer, Amazon and numerous start-ups are also developing and testing passenger and cargo-carrying UAS concepts,” said Chris.
