Ghana says quest for FAA Category 1 Status on course despite air crash
Air Commodore (Rtd) Kwame Mamphey, Director General, Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), says Ghana’s quest to regain the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Category 1 status is on course despite the accident involving the crash of the Allied Air Cargo plane.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Air Commodore Mamphey stressed, “I don’t believe the accident would in any way mar our reputation in the aviation industry” adding that the GCAA would continue to pursue the highest levels of safety and security in Ghana aviation.
According to him, FAA had earlier conducted a technical review and identified some gaps in procedures which the GCAA had come up with an action plan to address. “When we are ready, we would then invite the FAA for the audit” he said.
He noted that it was important to wait for the report of the Accident Investigation Committee on the crash, in order to determine probable causes of the accident and that based on the report, the GCAA would improve safety in areas where there was the need to.
On recent calls for the relocation of the KIA due to its location in the city centre, he said there was the need to think of a future relocation of the airport but agreed with the Minister for Transport, Alhaji Collins Dauda, who had earlier stated that the location of the airport was not enough reason for its relocation, citing the fact that other international airports were located in city centres.
A Boeing 727-200 with registration 5NBJN operating from Lagos to Accra overshot the runway on landing at 7:10pm, June 2, and went through the airport perimeter fence before hitting a commercial vehicle plying the Giffard road killing all passengers on board.
Ghana lost the FAA Category 1 in 2005 and has since made every effort to regain it.
The FAA conducts International Aviation Safety Assessment Programme (IASA), assessing the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of each country that has carriers operating to the United States. Because of the provisions of the Chicago Convention and national sovereignty, FAA is not permitted to evaluate a foreign carrier within its own sovereign state.
An IASA assessment determines if the foreign CAA provides oversight to its carriers that operate to the United States according to international standards.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation, a United Nations agency, and Annexes 1, 6, and 8 of the Chicago Convention develop those standards.
If the CAA meets standards, FAA gives that authority a Category 1 rating, which means that air carriers from the assessed state may initiate or continue service to the United States in a normal manner and take part in reciprocal code-share arrangements with US carriers.
Source: GNA