Air Botswana (AB) reportedly risks lives of passengers with flight deck crew members whose licenses have not been endorsed by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAAB).
The Sunday Standard can reveal that some unendorsed pilots at AB were recently assigned to fly illegally during a trip to Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) on the 12th June, being an example.
This publication is in possession of some names of the crew members whose licenses are yet to be endorsed by CAAB but were assigned to fly to Eswatini. They are part of more than 10 crew members who are currently grounded.
Asked why CAAB did not endorse the annual Licence Skill Test (LST) for the crew members in question, the Authority’s spokesperson Modipe Nkwe said: “CAAB, would not endorse Licenses obtained without the fulfilment of regulatory requirements and protocols.” The LST is done to ensure that pilots are fit to fly, among others.
According to a letter dated 28 February 28, Air Botswana sent a request to CAAB for authorisation to perform licence skill tests for some of its crew members.
While Nkwe denied that CAAB received a request on a letter dated 28th February 2020, he had this to say: “The only correspondence received from Air Botswana dated 28th February this year was not a request for the above but information on Air Botswana plans for the following month. We would also hesitate to share Regulator/Operator matters with the media unless are of public safety.”
It is understood that despite the fact that Air Botswana had not been granted authorisation by CAAB it went ahead and some of the crew members’ license skill tests were conducted by ART in France but they have now not been endorsed by CAAB.
Nkwe said: “If there has been no authority (as a requirement) given by the Regulator (CAAB) for the conduct of License Skill Tests and indeed the operator proceeded to conduct the said tests in breach of Regulatory requirements, it means an offence has been made.”
On crew members who continue to fly with unendorsed licenses, Modipe said: “If that can be confirmed, the crew members and those who authorised them to fly will have undertaken a task without valid licenses which is a requirement. If that is the case, as purported in your question above, this would have been a Regulatory breach punishable by a fine.”
Air Botswana has 27 pilots in total for their various fleet; Embraer 170 pilots has been allocated eight pilots and the ATR 72-600 has 19 pilots. Each pilot is specific to an aircraft, that is he or she flies only one type of aircraft for the airline.
The 19 ATR pilots were all due for the mandatory annual recurrent training referred to as a Licence Skills Test(LST). The LST is then endorsed in a pilot’s licence by the CAAB, or by a Delegated Pilot Examiner(DPE). An application for endorsement has to be made to CAAB, accompanied by other relevant documents, one of them which is an ‘Authorisation to Test’ from CAAB. This ‘authorization to test’ has to be obtained before the training and testing can occur.
Sunday Standard can reveal that Air Botswana did not obtain ‘authorisation to test’ for some of its pilots for this recurrent training period, therefore cannot submit complete documents for the pilots’ endorsement.
The documents also show that airline had well established training process and it had been used all along in the past as it has pilots it can use for operations if required.
It is understood that there were abrupt changes in the approved and already in motion training plan resulting in the current mess. The reasons for these changes were never communicated formally to anyone in the training team. Informally, the reason was reportedly given as verbally ‘cost saving’.
But records show that this is not the case, as the changes created problems like lost simulator slots, which could not be refunded, changed travel plans, where expensive tickets had to be bought.
The result is that currently only eight pilots have endorsements and can be used to operate flight. At least 11 pilots had been grounded by these changes– no LST endorsement. They have not operated since end of March, and even the ‘recency’ has expired, including the extension allowed by CAAB under the Covid 19 rules.
Industry sources say the tendency to assign unlicensed officers is a causes concern. The airline has been charged before by CAAB, for assigning flying duties to crews who have exceeded their allowed duty/flight time limitations. It is understood that it is very difficult for these crew members to decline these assignments for fear of victimization.
“Covid-19 has been helpful to AB, in that it has reduced the frequency of flights, therefore it is easy for Flight Operations Division to hide this kind of information (even from the executive management) as the 8 pilots would be able to man the thin schedule,” an industry expert said.
For her part, Air Botswana spokesperson, Kefilwe Kebafetotse said in February 2020, the Airline submitted an application for authorizations for training and tests of its Pilots to CAAB.
She said this was then followed by a successful refresher training and tests for Pilots of the ATR 72 fleet, which was conducted at the ATR Training Centre in France, (February and March 2020).
“These trainings and tests were in line with the requirements for ensuring that the Pilots remain proficient and legal, to continue performing their duties. The refresher training and tests were conducted by both CAAB approved Instructors and Examiners from Air Botswana and the ATR Training Centre,” she said.
According to Kebafetotse, a senior CAAB flight operations Inspector was deployed to the training centre for purposes of performing oversight functions on the delivery of these training and tests.
“Records of such training and tests have been submitted to CAAB for processing and endorsement of the necessary licences of the trained Pilots. At this point, the Airline would like to assure you that, only Pilots with relevant endorsements are currently operating flights,” she said.
She said the airline’s commitment towards the safety of its staff and customers is a top priority, and remains uncompromised, even during these difficult COVID-19 times.
Kebafetotse insisted that Air Botswana observes the highest safety and operational standards which are benchmarked from industry best practice.
“The Airline’s impressive safety record as well as consistent performance in regular IATA and CAAB audits is a clear demonstration of the importance that is attached to safe operations. Air Botswana works closely with CAAB and other international aviation organizations on matters of regulatory compliance,” she said.
