At its June 7 board meeting, the AviAssist
Foundation (AF) welcomed Ron Schipper as a new board member. Schipper is board
member of both Kenya Airways and Tanzania’s Precision Air. The board also
welcomed Head of Flight Operations Michiel van Dorst as KLM’s new board member,
succeeding Elfrieke van Galen who left KLM earlier this year.
“The Foundation will shortly finalise its 2010-2014
Strategic Plan” said AF chairman Bert Kraan. ”The implementation of this plan
will see the start of its flagship magazine SafetyFocus
this summer, an exciting new product of the Foundation. The magazine will
mean a major step forward in access to best practices for the region’s aviation
professionals. Advertisers from various branches of the aviation industry are
using the magazine for the unique marketing opportunity that it is. With those
advertisements being carried in 22 East and Southern African countries, the
Foundation is enabled to distribute the magazine for free to a large audience.“
“The plan’s implementation will also see the
development and roll out of an aviation data & safety enhancement (ADSE)
tool to serve the region’s growing safety data requirements,” Kraan continued.
“The strategic plan will guide the efforts at making best safety practices and
the global aviation safety roadmap available in the region through amongst
others its Training Centre Capacity building Program (TCCP) and support to the
East African- interim Wildlife Management Committee (supported by the
Netherlands Ministry of Transport)”
” The expansion
of the board with Kenya Airways signifies the increasing recognition of the
Foundation’s added value to safety promotion and assurance in East and Southern
Africa (ESAF)” explained AviAssist Director Tom Kok.
Hoofddorp, Netherlands, 9 June, 2010
To download the full press release in PDF, click here.
04-22-2010
Foundation secures contract for birdstrike prevention program
Netherlands, Hoofddorp - 22 April, 2010
The Netherlands Ministry of Transport (NMoT) contracted the AviAssist Foundation to organise a number of events on wildlife management & aviation. Wildlife issues and in particular birdstrikes remain a major safety issue for airlines and operators in East and Southern Africa. A number of destinations in that region have a significantly higher bird strike ratio then ICAO minima prescribe. The region does not have an established program on training on the subject nor does it have a regional wildlife management committee. The Foundation will organise two events that will be hosted by Kilimanjaro Airports Development Company in Tanzania in September.
”The AviAssist Foundation continually invests in developing programs that address industry priorities” explained AviAssist Director Tom Kok. “The two upcoming events built on a successful workshop on the subject in November 2009. That event present a great learning experience for the participants, it also led to the start of the interim East African Wildlife Committee. Interim because there are discussions ongoing with the Civil Aviation Safety and Security Oversight Agency (CASSOA) of the East African Community to embed the committee in its programs. From the November workshop, the Foundation has continued its support to the subject by providing support to the participants by email.
“Just like the previous event we will rely on partners and sponsors to ensure that the costs of participation remains realistic. It is a privilege for the AviAssist Foundation to continue to work with the NMoT as the major supporter for this program. Hosting such events and providing (in kind) support provides an excellent opportunity for such partners to demonstrate their commitment to improving aviation safety and improve their profile in the region. It also means that participants may be able to learn from other stakeholders that would not necessarily be presenting at such events otherwise. For example, in this upcoming event, we hope to have in kind support from an engine manufacturer through a presentation to increase participants’ appreciation of the engineering side of bird strikes and wildlife encounters”
The four day workshop and the three day masterclass will see facilitation by a team of renowned experts and will see input and sponsoring by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
To download the full press release in Adobe PDF, click here.
11-16-2009
Bird strike prevention workshop East Africa completed in Arusha
Hoofddorp, Netherlands, 16th November, 2009 — The AviAssist
Foundation completed a four day wildlife hazard management workshop at
Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania on Friday. The
course provided an introduction and refresher to wildlife hazards to aviation. The workshop was oversubscribed with 27
participants from 7 countries in the region.
“A
number of airports in the East African region suffer from a fairly serious bird
strike problem. The workshop is part of the Foundation’s efforts campaign to bring
best practices within reach of African aviation professionals in East and
Southern Africa” explained
AviAssist Director Tom Kok. ”The workshop was
closely coordinated with ICAO and the Civil Aviation Safety and Security
Oversight Agency (CASSOA) of the East African Community (EAC). It followed
international standards on this subject. The Foundation was pleased to find 2 members
of the International Bird Strike Committee prepared to make their expertise
available to their colleagues in this region. The overwhelming interest for
participation to the workshop may be testimony to the region’s interest to
tackle this complicated issue”.
In
his opening address, CASSOA Executive Director Mtesigwa Maugo underlined his Agency’s
support to the possible establishment of a regional Wildlife Management
Committee. During the workshop, the Foundation managed to facilitate the start
of the East African Interim Wildlife Hazard Management Committee. The
Foundation will support the committee as part of its regular mandate.
Financial and in kind support of the Netherlands
Ministry of Transport, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Precision Air and host Kilimanjaro
Airports Development Company made the workshop possible and free to
participants other then having to cover their own travel and accommodation cost.
“We will step up
our efforts to make best safety practices available to aviation professionals
in this region. In June next year, we will start the Foundation’s full colour safety
magazine ‘SafetyFocus’. The international
aviation community doesn’t always appreciate that most aviation professionals
here cannot easily browse the worldwide web for such best practices. The Foundation
will close that gap with a full colour magazine that will be distributed for
free in hard copy to key decision makers in the African industry. Organisations
can turn the magazine into their in-house safety magazine as part of the
implementation of Safety Management Systems. For advertisers, the magazine will
be a unique opportunity to access 22 East and Southern African countries with
their products and services. In that way, they can start accessing the region for
a nominal fee per country - an excellent option in these times of
tight budgets.”
Foundation
arranges aviation inspectors course for Zambia
Hoofddorp, Netherlands, 5th October, 2009 —
The AviAssist
Foundation was instrumental in getting an ICAO endorsed Government Safety
Inspectors course to Zambia. The course is conducted by instructors from the
Netherlands Aviation College (NLC) from the Netherlands. It is normally taught
at the NLC facilities in Hoofddorp. The NLC is one of only 8 training centres
worldwide that is endorsed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation
(ICAO) to provide these critical courses.
To further
improve its already good standing with the aviation industry, the Zambian Department
of Civil Aviation (DCA) invited a number of senior pilots from operators to the
course to increase their appreciation for the DCA’s responsibilities.
The Zambian
Permanent Secretary of Communications and Transport Mr. Dominic Sichinga today
opened the course in Lusaka, Zambia. “The workshop is
part of the commitment of the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) to ensure
it meets its international (ICAO) aviation safety oversight obligations” stated
Permanent Secretary Sichinga. ”The GRZ is
working hard on implementing a corrective action plan to meet shortfalls that came
up in the 2009 ICAO audit of Zambia. The action plan forms the roadmap for meeting
the ICAO standards and, from there, getting Zambia removed from the EU
blacklist on aviation. This course in turn is an important ingredient of that
roadmap.”
“One of the
major findings of the ICAO Safety Oversight Audit program is that there is a
significant shortage of qualified and experienced Government Safety Inspectors
(GSI) in many states. Most states only need a limited number of inspectors.
Establishment of specific training centres at a national level may therefore
not be economical. The Netherlands holds a valuable instrument with having one
of those centres in Hoofddorp” explained AviAssist Director Tom Kok. “The
efforts to bring this course to Zambia are part of the Foundation’s campaign to
make best safety practices available to aviation professionals in this region. It
is encouraging to see that the GRZ, through its Department of Civil Aviation
(DCA), shows increased commitment to its safety oversight responsibilities by
paying for this course to come to Zambia. In that way, many more Zambian safety
oversight officers can be trained. On top of that, Zambia continues to show
regional leadership by opening up the course to other states from the region.
This is a promising development given efforts that are underway to come to
regional co-operation on certain elements of aviation safety oversight. In
fact, the AviAssist Foundation assisted the European Aviation Safety Agency
(EASA) in organising a symposium on Regional Aviation Safety Agencies that was
hosted by the GRZ in July this year”. For the full press release in PDF, please click here.
07-01-2009
Safety awareness course
Zambia
to initiate safety
management practice - Hoofddorp, 1st July, 2009
In a possible first for East and Southern Africa
outside South Africa, the
AviAssist Foundation yesterday finished a two day safety awareness course in Zambia.
The course provided an introduction to safety management for Zambian
operators. It helps them work towards the
implementation of a safety management system (SMS).
The oversubscribed course had 22 participants from amongst
others the air force, the airports and numerous commercial operators.
The implementation of an SMS will map toplevel safety concerns. At the same time, safety
data collection and analysis will then have to start measuring an operator’s effectiveness
in dealing with these toplevel safety concerns.
“The course is part of the
Foundation’s campaign to support the roll out of data driven safety management
in East and Southern Africa” explained AviAssist Director Tom Kok. ”The Foundation remains committed
to bring knowledge on crucial safety subjects such as SMS to the African region
in coordination with ICAO. The course is based on materials of a wide variety
of sources, including ICAO. Elements of this course have been developed and
adapted from the Hearts and Minds program (www.energyinst.org.uk/heartsandminds),
with the kind permission of Shell International Exploration and Production. A
move towards a positive safety culture in Africa
really requires that such
critical courses are also made available in-country for a wider group of staff
members. It starts with staff getting an appreciation of those components and
concepts. We plan to develop a shorter version of the course to address all
staff of operators (incl. e.g. ground support staff) and a longer version to go
beyond an introduction. At just under €200 per person for a two day in-country course,
regulators and smaller operators can also afford to start pro-active safety
management in their operations. The course is part of a toolkit that the
Foundation aims to develop to assist in the implementation of SMS. It is
crucial that the tools are within the financial &
human resource capabilities of the average African operator, which is
not a large IATA carrier. The training will also become available to operators
and regulators in other countries in the region. Just as in Zambia, we want
to include a free train-the-trainer component to a series of 3 or 4 courses in
other countries. In that way, national civil aviation colleges can work towards
including the course into their regular curriculum and tap into this soft
skills market. This ensures a solution that is affordable to operators and safety
regulators in each country.”
To access the press release as a PDF document, click here.
06-26-2009
EASA contracts Foundation on regional safety oversight symposium - 26 June 2009
The European
Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) contracted the AviAssist Foundation to assist in the
organisation of a symposium on Regional Aviation Safety
Agencies (RASAs) that will take place from 13-15 July in Livingstone, Zambia.
The three day event, organised by EASA and the African Civil Aviation
Commission (AFCAC) and hosted by the Zambian Department of Civil Aviation, aims
to share experiences in and obstacles to regional approaches in Africa and other regions. The event will promote the
concept of RASA as a solution to some of the safety oversight challenges faced
in parts of Africa.
”It is a privilege for
the AviAssist Foundation to work with EASA and AFCAC on promoting regional
solutions” explained AviAssist
Director Tom Kok. “Realistically, the level of aviation activity in
many African countries is (yet) too low to generate the funds necessary to
support effective and sustainable national safety oversight systems. Regional
organisations, bringing together a workable number of states, offer the most
economical way to pool resources for effective oversight. But there seems to be little progress
in oversight cooperation in East and Southern Africa,
other then the East African Community (EAC). The AviAssist Foundation wants to
work with EASA and AFCAC on the involvement of critical aviation outsiders in the possible positive effects of the
establishment of regional organisations. It is crucial to get this issue on the
political agenda of African governments, not just on the agenda of civil
aviation departments. The challenge will be to find a genuine, common cause to drive
regional co-operation. In Europe in the
1970’s, this drive was the desire to set up a large aeroplanes industry that could compete with US aircraft
manufacturers. That needed a more efficient certification process. This led to
the birth of the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) that will come to a close on
the 30th of June 2009. The JAA has shown the way to
pan-European co-operation in the field of aviation safety and is leaving a
great heritage to European aviation. That heritage is now being completely
taken over by the EASA. Some countries in Africa may want to
come together on safety oversight as possibly the only way of ensuring that
safety oversight gets to an internationally acceptable level”
To download this press release in Adobe PDF, click here.
05-28-2009
EU contracts Foundation on Zambia safety support
Hoofddorp, Netherlands, 28 May, 2009 —
The Delegation of the European Commission (EC) in Zambia has contracted the AviAssist Foundation to kick-start EC support to aviation safety improvements in Zambia.
The program will be funded under the European Development Fund (EDF). The EDF is the main instrument providing European Union aid for development cooperation with amongst others African countries. It finances programs contributing to the economic development of the recipient countries. This EDF funding comes from the EDF focal sector of regional integration & transport Infrastructure.
“The Foundation is pleased to work hand in hand with the Delegation of the European Commission in Zambia to improve aviation safety. As a result of the non-profit status of the Foundation, it can perform contracts like this under most international tendering thresholds. This makes it possible for sponsors such as the European Commission to act swiftly because a direct contract is then possible” explained AviAssist Director Tom Kok. “This contract underlines a constructive approach by the European Union (EU) to complement the signal function of the EU blacklisting. The AviAssist Foundation looks forward to working with other EC delegations in Africa within the EDF framework. It is a valuable instrument to facilitate safety improvements needed to harvest bigger benefits from tourism and business that rely on aviation. For Zambia, the objective is to build capacity on regulatory and operational issues in the specific areas of air safety, security and traffic management. The EC and the Foundation are keen to try and ensure that the capacity building happens in close co-ordination with the national industry”.
02-18-2009 Info packages to Malawi & Mozambique parliaments dispatched - The AviAssist Foundation has dispatched its info packages to the
members of parliament of the transport committees of the parliaments of
Malawi & Mozambique.
Aviation authorities may face political reluctance when they are trying
to realize fundamental changes. This could be towards modern legal codes needed for adequate
safety oversight. A better understanding amongst politicians may help them overcome political reluctance when trying to
restructure the safety oversight organisation to autonomous organisation. The
aviation authority may have to persuade its parent ministry, the cabinet and
its parliament that autonomisation or regionalisation may be a critical step to
a more effective oversight organisation.
The dispatch of the info package by the AviAssist Foundation is part of the campaign
to increase political & parliamentary understanding and
appreciation for the international framework on aviation safety in East
and Southern Africa.
11-27-2008
AviAssist brings information sessions on State Safety Program to Zambia
In a first for Africa, the AviAssist Foundation brought two information sessions on State Safety Programs (SSP) to Zambia. The sessions provided a first introduction to the concept of the SSP at a national level.
The State Safety Program (SSP) is the State’s equivalent of the Safety Management System (SMS). The implementation of an SSP will map toplevel safety concerns. At the same time, safety data collection and analysis will then have to start measuring the aviation department’s effectiveness in dealing with the issues surrounding and supporting these toplevel safety concerns.
“Safety promotion is a crucial part of the mission of the AviAssist Foundation” explained AviAssist Director Tom Kok. ”The Foundation’s remains committed to bring knowledge on crucial safety subjects such as State Safety Programs to the African region. A move towards a just culture in Africa simply requires that such critical sessions and workshops are not only available to senior management at workshops abroad but are also made available in country. The AviAssist Foundation is building a toolkit to assist in the implementation of State Safety Programs.
Technology
donations to help initiate data driven safety practice -
The AviAssist Foundation in Southern
Africa announced today that it had received several important technology
donations from two companies in Europe. ADSE Consulting
& Engineering of the Netherlands
and Gael Ltd. of the UK have
teamed up with AviAssist to support the initiation of data driven management in
Africa.
“The first step to managing anything is to
measure it. Safety management and data analysis are tools that can be highly
efficient in predicting where ought to be taken to prevent accidents and
incidents,” noted AviAssist Director Tom Kok.
“However, data driven safety management has not yet influenced
operations in Africa on a large scale.The
exposure to the technology from ADSE and Gael will assist the Foundation in
enabling African operators and governments to draw valuable lessons from normal
operations and incidents"
First ICAO State Safety Program workshop - ICAO’s ACIP (African Comprehensive Implementation Plan) held its first State Safety Program in Ethiopia from the 23rd until the 26th of September.
The State Safety Program (SSP) has a number of components that can also be clearly recognised in the Global Aviation Safety Roadmap of the Industry (ISSG). In that respect it is interesting to see how the development of SSPs and the Roadmap start to move in sync. The Roadmap further provides clearly defined best practices that can be used by African countries to prioritise their activities in implementing their SSP.
The SSP introduces the need of data collection by States to enable agreeing on acceptable levels of safety performance. It will insert quality assurance components into safety oversight. As such, the introduction of SSP should do away with merely prescribing regulations by introducing a more interactive approach of setting safety targets. As such, it could play an important role in bridging the gap between the regulator and the industry. Making that gap smaller will be a critical element of changing a (safety) culture.
More information on the State Safety Program workshop will soon be placed on the ICAO FSIX website
08-08-2008 ICAO Safety Oversight Audit information for the Seychelles and South Africa has been added to the ICAO FSIX website. For an overview of the audit results of the Seychelles, follow this link. For an overview of the audit results of South Africa, follow this link.
07-10-2008 Foundations start African parliamentary Campaign - The AviAssist Foundation today starts a campaign to inform Parliamentary transport committees in East and Southern African (ESAF) on aviation safety issues. Parliaments play a critical role in enabling much-needed legislative changes and empowering the civil aviation department.
“A new crop of threats to aviation safety is part of a renewed focus of the FSF. Amongst those emerging risks is a shaky political will” said FSF President and CEO William R. Voss.
The AviAssist Foundation has assembled an information package that is being dispatched to parliaments in the ESAF region. The package will inform Parliamentary Transport Committees about the aviation safety challenges that may benefit from their support.
07-02-2008 Preparing for ICAO audits - A number of countries in the East and Southern African region are preparing for their Comprehensive Safety Audit (CSA) later this year. Zambia will receive the ICAO audit team from the 15th until the 24th of September. Three of the East African Community states are due for their audit in November. Kenya will be audited from 4-13 November whereas Tanzania and Uganda will be audited from the 17th until the 26th of November. It will be the first audit of the East African Community states since their joint Civil Aviation Safety and Security Oversight Agency (CASSOA) has been installed. Preparations for the audits are in full swing with a number of countries hosting an ICAO workshop to assist in the preparations. The previous audits of those countries looked into safety oversight only (ICAO Annex 1,6 & 8) but the upcoming CSA audits will review all but one of the 18 ICAO Annexes. This will lead to a comprehensive overview of aviation safety in the audited country. It also means that more staff has to be brought up to speed on the rationale & methodology of the audits.
06-05-2008 The AviAssist Foundation appraised airlines and stakeholders from the Gulf Region on African aviation safety issues during today's meeting of the Gulf Flight Safety Committee (GFSC). The AviAssist Foundation was invited by the GFSC to come and share its programs with GFSC members. The GFSC aims to share safety materials and experiences between Gulf based airlines to improve safety of their operations. Jointly, the airlines from that region operate some 153 weekly frequencies into Africa, transporting some 1 million passengers into the African region on a yearly basis. This number is growing rapidly. GFSC members are interested in sharing their expertise with the ESAF region. While in Dubai, the Foundation undertook further promotion at the Dubai Airport Show and briefed the Netherlands Consulate on its activities. The United Arab Emirates is member of the Steering Committee of the ICAO African Comprehensive Implementation Plan (ACIP). The AviAssist Foundation will continue working closely with the GFSC members and is working towards mobilising support from the region for its programs and services.
06-02-2008
Foundation team to boost African aviation safety - Flight Safety Foundation and the AviAssist Foundation today announced that the two organisations have developed a partnership to address aviation safety issues in the East and Southern African (ESAF) region. The partnership will support efforts to replicate success stories of some countries and companies that so far largely go unnoticed. To download the full press release, click here.
05-29-2008 Today, the Southern African (SADC) project for cooperative safety oversight was officially launched in Lusaka, Zambia. During a special session on the day before the SADC Civil Aviation Committee meeting, the COSCAP-SADC steering committee had its first meeting. Under leadership of the ICAO Regional Office in Nairobi, project coordinator Cliff Elbl outlined the plans for the first 12 months of the project. SADC brings together 14 Southern African states. The project is hosted in the Botswana capital Gaborone that also houses the SADC headquarters. It is expected to last 36 months from April 2008 onwards. COSCAP projects focus their prime attention on cooperative development of safety oversight capacity on aviation operations, airworthiness and personnel licensing.
04-23-2008
The first African workshop on the implementation of the Global Aviation Safety Roadmap took place in Abuja, Nigeria from 14 to 16 April. It was the first of its kind to be held in Africa under the parameters of the recently launched Global Aviation Safety Road Map, an initiative of the International Safety Strategy Group (ISSG).
The significance of the roadmap is that it is an initiative that involves all the stakeholders of the aviation community worldwide. It involves international organizations and associations, airport operators, aircraft operators and manufacturers, service providers and professional pilots. This approach changes the culture and paradigms of global aviation safety. The ISSG was formed two years ago and its members include the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), International Air Transport Association (IATA), Airport Council International (ACI), International Federation of Airlines Pilots Association (IFALPA), Flight Safety Foundation (FSF), Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (CANSO) and aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing.
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