Privately-owned airline operator CemAir and its director Miles van der Molen are suing the South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for nearly R170 million for financial losses it says it incurred over the grounding of its air fleet in 2018.
Van der Molen is also suing for what he deems defamatory statements made by the CAA on its website relating to the grounding.
The Kempton Park-based company says the CAA breached its statutory duties by halting its business without reasonable grounds, grounding its entire fleet under circumstances in which the CAA’s investigation only pertained to one aircraft.
The company, in its pleadings, also says the CAA and one of its officials, Simphiwe Salela, took the decisions intentionally, in bad faith and in a manner that was unfair.
The company and Van der Molen allege that as a direct result of this conduct, it suffered damages amounting to R130-million.
The company furthermore alleges it was defamed by the publication of articles on the CAA website and seeks further damages of R40-million.
Van der Molen says the public statements by the CAA alleged there had been a dereliction of duty on his part in relation to an incident he was involved in.
The matter is yet to be ventilated in court.
According to CemAir’s website, the firm owns and operates a fleet of 23 aircraft, comprising three CRJ 900, six CRJ 100/200 LR Airliners, four Dash 8 Q400s, two Dash-8 Q300s, one Dash 8 100, and seven Beechcraft 1900D aircraft.
The company has operating and leasing experience throughout Africa and the Middle East, including Afghanistan, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mali, Gabon, Ghana, Tanzania, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Madagascar and South Africa.
The aviation authority in 2018 grounded CemAir’s fleet on two separate occasions. Earlier that year, the CAA grounded 12 of the company’s aircraft when inspectors found they were serviced and cleared by unqualified staff in their maintenance department.
The company was also grounded in December of that year after it was accused of having contravened the Civil Aviation Act and five other civil aviation regulations.
The CAA is authorised by law to control, promote, regulate, develop, enforce and improve aviation safety and security in South Africa.
CAA’s spokesperson Sisa Majola promised to send a response however, he had not done so at the time of going to print.
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