The South African Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) has suspended the approval of Lufthansa Technik, one of the aircraft maintenance organisations (AMO) that maintains the fleet of Comair.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Sacaa said the suspension followed a four-day audit that started on March 15. The audit of the AMO maintaining the Comair fleet followed the conclusion of the airline’s audit by the Sacaa after a spate of incidents since February.
“During the safety oversight visit Lufthansa Technik’s quality control management system and safety management systems were subjected to a review to establish legislative compliance related to reporting, analysis and follow-up of occurrences, and corrective action plans to prevent recurrence,” said the Sacaa in a statement.
“The audit resulted in four level 1 findings raised with the AMO. A level 1 finding poses an immediate risk to users of civil aviation services and such findings must be closed immediately.”
The Sacaa shared the preliminary results of the audit on Sunday with Lufthansa’s accountable manager and his team and gave the operator 24 hours to make representations.
They said they reviewed the evidence and corrective action plans were submitted by the operator until Monday, March 21.
“The evidence was found to be satisfactory in relation to two of the level 1 findings. This means that two other level 1 findings could not be closed within the stipulated time.
“It is for this reason that the Sacaa handed a 24-hour precautionary suspension of the privileges of the AMO with effect from Monday night. The operator is required to submit further evidence to close the gaps identified by the regulator within this period, failing which the regulator will indefinitely suspend the approval of the AMO until such findings are sufficiently closed.
“The Sacaa found that the AMO had both a quality management system and safety management system in place, however, both were not implemented as per the CARs [civil aviation regulations] and the requisite manuals.
“According to the civil aviation regulations, the operator can appeal the decision of the suspension to the director in terms of part 185.04.2.”
The mandate of the Sacaa is to regulate and enforce civil aviation safety and security compliance.
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