CAPE TOWN - The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) confirmed that they suspended the approval of Lufthansa Technik, one of the Aircraft Maintenance Organisations (AMO) that maintains the fleet of Comair Ltd on Monday.
According to a statement by SACAA, the suspension followed a four-day audit which started on 15 March 2022.
Comair has since confirmed that they have acted pre-emptively by arranging for SAA Technical (SAAT) to take over the line-maintenance of its aircraft “to prevent customer inconvenience”.
“The audit of both the AMOs maintaining the Comair fleet follows the conclusion of the airline’s audit by the SACAA following a spate of incidents taking place from February 2022. During the safety oversight visit, Lufthansa Technik’s quality control management system (QC) and safety management systems (SMS) 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.
“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. The SACAA reviewed the evidence and corrective action plans submitted by the Operator until Monday 21 March 2022,” SACAA said.
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,” said SACAA.
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 and the requisite manuals. According to the Civil Aviation Regulations (CARs), the Operator can appeal the decision of the suspension.
Cape Times