Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) CEO and Commissioner Captain Colin Jordaan has defended the body’s reputation, assuring the public that the CAA continues to ensure the safe operation of airlines.

“The CAA regards its statutory mandate of ensuring aviation safety and security to be of paramount importance," Jordaan said last Friday. "As such, the aviation safety record in the country continues to demonstrate tremendous improvements as a result of the enhanced aviation safety and security oversight by the CAA.”

The CAA has found itself in the spotlight recently for its role in ensuring safety at a troubled airline. It was also the subject of a dossier chronicling several alleged shortcomings compiled by the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union and recently handed to Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele. The final CAA report into the 2007 accident, in which a Boeing 737-200 lost an engine on takeoff from Cape Town, was released late last year and also highlights the failings of the CAA at the time.

Since his appointment in late 2007, Jordaan has worked to stabilise the CAA after years of mismanagement and played a critical role in preventing it being downgraded by the US’s Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) last year.

Jordaan said all the problems in the accident report had been addressed. “All recommendations in the report have been implemented. The airworthiness department has been at 100 percent operational strength since May 2008, which included training all of the new inspectors. Both the CAA’s flight operations and airworthiness capability were scrutinised intensely by the FAA when they conducted their re-audit in July 2008. Both departments were found to be fully staffed and trained to carry out oversight in terms of our regulations and international requirements."

The CAA is now attempting to take the safety of South Africa's aviation sector a step further through the introduction of Safety Management Systems, a risk management system aimed at identifying potential problems areas and dealing with them timeously.

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