The Civil Aviation Authority of South Africa have released a media statement wherein they advise that they have revoked CemAir’s Part 121 and 135 Air Operator Certificates (AOCs) with immediate effect, the statement was released on the afternoon of Friday 11 January 2019.

In the statement the SACAA state that “the suspension was necessitated by the SACAA’s concerns over the systemic failure of the airline’s maintenance controls. In a nutshell, the most recent annual renewal audit revealed CemAir’s inability to prove the continued airworthiness of its fleet.”

The SACAA claims that in the recent audit, 21 to 24 December, eleven (11) findings of which five (5) were classified as Level 1 were revealed. They further concede that CemAir has submitted an acceptable Corrective Action Plan (CAP) for 10 of the findings.

CemAir subsequently submitted a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) aimed at addressing one of the “Level 1” findings related to the continued airworthiness of the operator’s fleet. The initial CAP and subsequent revised versions were reviewed and found to be unacceptable.

In the statement the SACAA did not provide details of the final “level 1” finding but rather eluded to the fact that CemAir did not produce sufficient evidence to authenticate that all manufactures recommendations were fully implemented. Failure to produce evidence seems, for me as a layman a far cry from ignoring the recommendations.

We are awaiting CemAir’s response to the latest allegations, I am sure that CemAir will once again revert to the courts to resolve this matter as was the case in December where a settlement was reached and the Cemair’s AOC’s were immediately reinstated.

Please find the SACAA Statement here