Play open cards with the public about the so-called "technical problems" at SAA Technical that resulted in various airlines' planes being grounded today.
According to media reports, the South African Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) issued a notice concerning the matter which states that "irregularities" were found during a recent audit of SAA Technical.
It is worrying that no attempts were made to explain the nature of the irregularities or problems as this has the potential of causing great distrust among members of the public who fly with airlines whose planes are serviced by SAA Technical.
The general assumption is that factors like Affirmative Action (AA) have had the same detrimental effect on the technical division of SAA as what is evident at other public enterprises, like Eskom and elsewhere.
It is shocking that airlines are seemingly unable to comply with technical requirements and that the problem has apparently become so extensive that the Sacaa was forced to intervene on such a grand scale today.
Apparently even the Sacaa has problems with a lack of expertise after it dismissed numerous pilots who had been in its service. This left a gap that now has to be filled by training staff members as pilots.
This lack of expertise at the Sacaa is also extremely worrying and it possibly also played a role in the fact that timely inspections were not done to prevent such an extensive crisis.
Experts in the field told the FF Plus earlier today that the so-called "technical problems" are probably related to parts used in the planes and how these parts were obtained.
A thorough investigation must be conducted to replace the relevant parts and that can take up to a week per plane.
This is a very serious matter. If the actions of any person jeopardised the safety of any passenger in any way, action must be taken immediately. AA may not be allowed to affect the safety of passengers in this way.
Contact number: 072 428 6103
;
