South Africa : New body to take over issuing of pilot licences

By Edwin Tshivhidzo, tel: (012) 314-2454

Midrand - As from 1 February 2009, the newly established Recreation Aviation Administration South Africa (RAASA) will be responsible for issuing national pilot licences for light sport aircrafts.

Transport Minister Jeff Radebe has formalised the RAASA as an entity that will perform an oversight role on behalf of the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA).

The mandate of RAASA will be to exercise administrative control over recreation activities within the Non Typed Certified Aircraft industry.

Briefing the media on the formation of the RAASA, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Civil Aviation Authority Captain Colin Jordaan said this was in line with the provisions of section 22.1 (g) of the Aviation Act, 1962 (Act No 74 of 1962) and the Civil Aviation Regulations.

"The Act and regulations empower the Commissioner to designate a body or institution to carry out certain functions, the major part of which is to establish a safety standard relating to recreational aviations."

The Aero Club of South Africa had been responsible for carrying out some these functions but this had in the past presented various challenges and therefore could not meet the mandate of the Civil Aviation Authority.

"Some of the challenges were the diversity of the types of sport aviation that the Aero Club represented which made it difficult for the body to reach consensus on issues," said Captain Jordaan.

The authority thanked the Aero Club for the role it had played over the years and its input into the creation of the RAASA.

"This new partnership was three years in the making and we are pleased that the minister has now approved the designation of RAASA in compliance with PFMA [Public Finance Management Act] requirements," Captain Jordaan said.

The RAASA will be funded by fees collected from users and the Civil Aviation Authority for the oversight role that it will carry out on behalf of the authority.

"(However), at this stage it will not conduct oversight on non-powered recreational flying activities which will continue to be administered by Civil Aviation Authority designated Aviation Recreation Organisations (ARO's)," Captain Jordaan said.

Other responsibilities of the RAASA will include investigating light scale accidents while the Civil Aviation Authority will investigate major fatal aircraft accidents.

The Civil Aviation Authority will also remain the authority and will conduct compliance overview over activities of RAASA in terms of the designation.

Last year, the Civil Aviation Authority grounded Nationwide Airline after one of its Boeing 737-200 aircraft lost its engine. Subsequent to this a protracted grounding of the entire fleet was mandated by the SACAA.

There have been a number of fatal accidents involving light aircraft in recent months. In October six people were killed at the Rand Airport, east of Johannesburg, when a light aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing.

The single-engine Piper Saratoga aircraft took off at about 8.10am and about 2km into the journey, the pilot called in to request an emergency landing.

At the time, the Civil Aviation Authority said take-offs from airports around Johannesburg, which is situated at 1 600 metres above sea level, were more challenging in the southern hemisphere's summer because the air is thinner. - BuaNews