Experts meet on air safety

Ghana and the United States (US) Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) are working to resolve deficiencies in safety and security oversight in the country’s aviation industry.

The collaboration entails auditing safety measures in Ghana’s aviation industry against international standards and taking steps to boost the areas where standards fall short.

This will help the country’s quest to move from FAA Category II to I, and also position Ghana’s airspace as a preferred safety and security destination in the sub-region.

This came up during the 9th Cooperative Development and Operational Safety and Continuing Airworthiness Programme Steering Committee meeting and the Eleventh Plenary of the Banjul Accord Group, held in Accra on Monday.

The country’s airspace - called the Accra Flight Information Region, comprising the airspaces of Togo, Benin, Ghana and a large portion of the Atlantic Ocean has been considered as one of the safest in the world.

This year, Ghana also successfully implemented the Atlantic Ocean Random Route Area programme - a key international aviation requirement - to enable aircraft that fly over the Atlantic Ocean to fly with minimum wind effect and take advantage of the air currents over the Atlantic Ocean.

In a speech read on his behalf at the meeting, Mr. Mike Hammah, Minister of Transport, said government is committed to ensuring that Ghana is seen as a shining example of first-class aviation safety and security.

“The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority’s (GCAA) efforts to implement the International Civil Aviation Organisation and the Federal Aviation Authority Category 1 action-plan could not have come at a better time,” he stated.

Air Commodore Kwame Mamphey, Director General of the GCAA, indicated that at the present stage of the aviation industry, the West African sub-region needs to have a strong voice in matters relating to aviation safety and security.He said this could not be achieved on a with ease and that the sub-region needs to work at it as a strong regional grouping to ensure, first, that the collective airspace goal of safety and admirable security is achieved.

He explained to B&FT that the meeting will afford the member-states to exchange resources. He said Ghana has done very well to have attained the safety and regulation requirements, which is a very expensive venture.

The 9th Cooperative Development and Operational Safety and Continuing Airworthiness Programme steering committee and eleventh plenary of the Banjul Accord Group meeting had among other objectives to provide among the member states in the sub-region a focal point that deals with all questions relating to air operator certification and technical inspections with a view to harmonizing standards and all related policies and procedures.

It was also to facilitate a coordinated approach with regard to shared technical expertise made available to member states in order to avoid duplication of efforts and to ensure that CAA benefit to the greatest extent from these resources.