The Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh risks falling into ‘Significant Safety Concern’ list of International Civil Aviation Organisation again as it is yet to meet all conditions set by the international authority.
If blacklisted, the Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) would face a bar to registering for new international air route which would ultimately help foreign airlines to gain the upper hand in airline business, a CAAB official said, asking not to be named.
He said Bangladesh civil aviation was dropped from the safety concern list of ICAO ‘on condition’ in July 2012.
The US Federal Aviation Administration also ranked the CAAB category 2 because of failing to meet standards of the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
Of the conditions imposed by the ICAO, one was to have full-time staff under a new structured organogram, the official said, adding that most officials of the CAAB had been working on temporary basis.
The same requirement was imposed on CAAB by the US authorities.
Top CAAB officials believed that the current organogram was not well-structured, with two of its eight categories remaining unfilled.
The posts of Grade 1 and Grade 8 have fallen vacant since the organogram came into being.
The officials proposed to upgrade the post of chairman to grade 1 from grade 2 in order to fill the category, but no decision was made for grade 8.
The grades range from one to eight, including the first-class staff –chairman, director, chief engineers and others.
However, to achieve the category 1 status from the Federal Aviation Administration of USA, every country must meet the ICAO standard of all its eight audit areas.
The eight are primary aviation legislation, organisational structure and safety oversight functions, personnel licensing, flight operations, airworthiness, accident and incident investigation, air navigation services and aerodromes and ground aids.
The CAAB failed to meet seven of the eight audit areas, according to the International Civil Aviation Organisation safety audit report.
Around 11 civil aviation authorities of different countries like India, Bahamas, Barbados, Curacao, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Serbia, Sint Maarten, Uruguay and Bangladesh fall into FAA’s category 2.
Usually, the civil aviation authority of a country falls into category 2 for having a poor standard in at least one critical area of the eight in comparison with the global standard percentage.
The Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh has only met the standard of one category, which is flight operations. Here, the CAAB achieved 81.15% while global standard was 66.04%.
The CAAB got the lowest percentage in accident and incident investigation category which was 3.09% while the international standard was 53.59%.
At the legislation category it obtained 33.33% while the global standard 63.03%.
At the organisational structure and safety oversight functions, personnel licensing, airworthiness, air navigation services and aerodromes and grounds aids, the CAAB obtained 53.85%, 65.82%, 72.97%, 34.67% and 54.68% respectively while the global standards were 63.64%, 71.62%, 73.03%, 54.65 and 57.75%.
In 1996, the Federal Aviation Administration banned Dhaka-New York flight of Biman due to its category 2 rating.
Besides, the US Department of Defence doesn’t permit its personnel to use air carriers from category 2 countries.
Contacted, Air Cdre M Shafiqul Alam, acting chairman and member (Operations and Planning) of CAAB, confirmed the matter.
He told the Dhaka Tribune, “I agree there are some ups and downs in the standards of audit areas, but we are working to raise our standard.”
He added that, “It is tough to meet all ICAO standards as we have lack of manpower. Once we were on the blacklist, but not now.”
The requirement of FAA was a new structured organogram, the acting chairman said, adding that after the Civil Aviation Ministry approved the organogram, the FAA team would be invited for re-assessment of the CAAB which might take place in June this year.