UK ‘dissatisfied’ with CAA flight safety steps

British DfT writes letter to authority; refuses to lift ban on Pakistani airlines

ISLAMABAD:

The UK has refused to lift the ban on Pakistani flights, expressing its safety reservations to the country’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Sources said the Air Safety Unit of the British Department of Transport (DfT) had written a letter to the CAA to convey its concerns over the measures it had taken for flight dependability.

In the letter, the DfT has expressed its dissatisfaction over the steps taken by the CAA to ensure flight standards and safety.

The DfT is of the opinion that the ban could not be lifted because of the lack of progress despite the settlement of the licensing issues and legislation on aviation in Pakistan.

According to the sources, the account audit of CAA was clear but its score was lower compared with that in 2011 – reflecting a drop in regulation standards.

Read more: EU ban on PIA flights may be lifted soon as CAA clears safety audit

They added that the CAA had not provided any evidence of improvement in the 2020 system.

The CAA has been unable to establish an integrated flight safety system so far.

In response, the CAA has written back a detailed letter to the DfT carrying detailed answers to its queries.

Later, the Aviation Division and CAA considered taking up the matter on a diplomatic level.

A CAA spokesperson said all sovereign states had the right to review under their own regulations of flight safety.

He added that the audit report would be provided to the British DfT and European Commission.

The spokesperson said the CAA was in touch with the UK and the European Commission to resolve the issues in light of the regulations.

“The Pakistani CAA has provided a large amount of documents to the UK and European Commission for review,” he maintained.

A meeting with the European Commission is scheduled for October 25.

The spokesperson further said the British DfT had agreed to hold a meeting with Pakistani authorities soon.

The meeting is expected to take place this month or the next and the spokesperson said the CAA was hopeful that matters with the UK and European Commission would be settled during the huddle.

He added that the European Commission had informed the CAA about its visit to Pakistan in the first quarter of 2023.

In January this year, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) had refused to lift the ban imposed on the PIA to travel to European countries and the UK on the basis of the audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

The EASA had suspended the authorisation for Pakistani airlines to operate in Europe first for six months and then indefinitely in the wake of PIA’s PK8303 crashing in Karachi two years ago and the subsequent announcement by then aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan of the grounding of 262 airline pilots suspected of dodging their exams.