Home South African Probe after helicopter ’joyride’ caught on video

Probe after helicopter ’joyride’ caught on video

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In the short clip, the pilot is seen flying a Robinson R22 while his friends are enjoying a braai and beverages below.

File photo: Kham

THE South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) has called for an investigation into an alleged “show off session” by a pilot in a Robinson R22 helicopter on Thursday.

In a video clip, the pilot is seen entertaining friends at a braai. SACAA’s director of civil aviation, Poppy Khoza, said a regulation enforcement investigation was under way regarding this incident.

“The manner in which the helicopter is flown goes against all characteristics of good airmanship, and possibly also against flight operations law and aircraft limitations. Regardless, the investigation will reveal the real facts regarding this matter,” Khoza said.

She said the authority was also concerned about the high number of aircraft accidents in recent weeks.

Last month, 14 accidents were reported, with four being fatal accidents that claimed the lives of eight people.

Khoza said the last time the country experienced such a high number of accidents was in October 2008, subsequently dubbed “black October”, when 20 accidents were recorded in that month, resulting in eight fatal accidents that claimed 26 lives.

“While air transport still remains the safest among all modes of transport, to us as the regulator, one life lost is just one too many. With stringent regulations in place, coupled with layers of checks and balances, the expectation is that the measures inherent in the system, both safety and security, should work as they are supposed to.”

Khoza said while the accident rate was not currently at that level, it was quite concerning that there had been so many accidents in a month.

“We cannot afford to have a recurrence of the October 2008 statistics, hence we sound warning bells to all operators to ensure strict adherence to aviation safety and security regulations.”

Khoza said as much as there were ongoing investigations into the cause of the recent accidents, a review of finalised reports from previous accidents points to a few common causal factors.

She said at the top of the list were issues around flight crew, aircraft operations and mechanical or engine failure.

“In effect, this means that there are no new or unknown aircraft accident causal factors. The causes have been the same since the beginning of air transport, more than a century ago.

’’The main question remains; why do accidents continue when we know the causes? Could it be a matter of attitude and not necessarily aptitude?”

The recent spate of accidents comes just months after the launch of the General Aviation Safety Strategy (GASS).

“The GASS and its implementation plan are tools that will span the 2020-21 to 2024-25 financial years and are aimed at curbing accidents in the private and recreational flying sector, commonly referred to as general aviation.

“It would appear that the general aviation sector has not fully adopted the safety principles that are applied in the commercial scheduled operations or airline sector, which has not recorded a passenger fatality airline accident in more than 30 years on South African soil. This is a record we are proud of and want the general aviation sector to emulate,” Khoza said.

She appealed for collaboration from all concerned, adding that accidents don’t just happen out of the blue.

“A series of events usually lead to an accident. Hence, we appeal to everyone to live by the mantra that ‘you see something unbecoming, you say something’, because that could save someone’s life, including yours.”

Khoza said an off-site validation that was conducted in October 2020 by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to confirm the correctness of the submitted evidence by South Africa to close the audit findings emanating from the 2017 ICAO audit, resulted in the improvement of our country’s ICAO Effective Implementation (EI) rating from 87.41 to 88.68%.

This, Khoza said, cements the country’s place among the top compliant countries on matters of aviation safety, security oversight and administration.

“Considering our world ranking in terms of compliance, coupled with the numerous clean audit opinions that the SACAA has received from the Auditor-General for several consecutive years, it means we are calling for and demanding strict compliance to the aviation laws of our country that we as the SACAA are similarly capable of upholding.

’’Compliance in all aspects of aviation should become second nature for every aviator.”

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