Air Namibia in firing line

[square-head]

Friday, June 13, 2008 - Web posted at 8:03:55 GMT
Mudge predicts 'disaster' at Air Nam

CHRISTOF MALETSKY THE Republican Party has called on President Hifikepunye Pohamba to launch an investigation into alleged mismanagement at Air Namibia.


RP president Henk Mudge (a pilot himself, Ed) told the media in Windhoek yesterday that the national airline was not only a 'bottomless pit' but a major disaster risk because of nepotism, mismanagement, lack of financial discipline, double standards, the fast-tracking of pilots not capable of adhering to the responsibilities expected of them and low staff morale.

Mudge said his party had uncovered a number of glaringly obvious malpractices which had the potential to seriously affect Air Namibia's long-term viability and safety of passengers.

He wants Pohamba to appoint a reputable company to audit every managerial position, every pilot, every trainee pilot and every system in place at Air Namibia, claiming that "if something is not going to be done very soon, people are going to die and Air Namibia will be something of the past".

"We only need one accident and it will be all over and all the hundreds of millions pumped into Air Namibia will be in vain, as was and is the case with so many of this Swapo Government's parastatals and schemes," he said.
Mudge gave examples of poorly qualified or unqualified Air Namibia staff members, who he said were appointed purely on the basis of affirmative action.

The Namibian approached the company for comment and was still awaiting its response by the time of going to press.

Mudge said Air Namibia was being managed by people with no background and experience in aviation or big business and it was literally a matter of the blind leading the blind.

"Internal problems and the lack of proper management have already resulted in the airline having lost a large number of highly skilled and experienced staff.

Against the backdrop of a worldwide shortage of skilled and qualified personnel in the aviation industry we can ill afford to lose these people," he said.

Mudge claimed that a preoccupation with affirmative action and an overall lack of accountability from Government right down to the management of Air Namibia had resulted in the airline being in a position where the slightest mishap would have dire consequences.

"One thing that seems to elude the Swapo Government as well as the Board of Directors and especially the management of Air Namibia is the fact that the aviation industry is not the same as a transport company.
Everybody can become a truck driver, but not everybody can become a pilot," he said.

He claimed that a large number of previously disadvantaged people were appointed at Air Namibia, not because they had the skills and the potential to become ace pilots, but because they had the right connections. "To make things even worse, many of them have been and are still being fast-tracked, in total contradiction to the existing standard procedures and policies, not only at Air Namibia, but any airline of note," he said.

[Golf Oscar]

I don't know how Mr Mudge got his information?? But I can only say that his sources are very reliable and his information accurate. How long before Air Namibia is kicked out of Europe like next door neighbours Angola? How many world class hospitals could have been built, with all the money pumped into Air Nam? A private operator must get permission to compete. Would be interesting to see the results!!

[Propellerpilot]

IMHO Mr. Mudge is up against a wall fighting against a majority of arrogant incompetents who will not listen and just don't care, nothing is going to change - for them the proud national carrier has no flaw.

[Pow-wow]

What...this is shocking and outrages news....when did all this happen...:E

[JetPark]

This is very interesting - if explosive news. I had very high level meetings with their senior management several years ago when I was part of the airline business (thankfully not for very long) and I was left with feelings not unlike that described above but had thought at the time that it was more me being suspicious of one or two motives on some issues. I shall watch this thread develop with much interest.

[Pow-wow]

And here are Air Nam's replies today, in:

english: http://www.namibian.com.na/

german: http://www.az.com.na/lokales/air-namibia-reagiert-scharf.68433.php

afrikaans: http://www.republikein.com.na/politiek-en-nasionale/air-namibia-and-n-voorbeeld-vir-afrika.68422.php

[Alfred.E.Neuman]

Rather than disproving the "accusations" and "allegations",(more of those are in the Windhoek Observer), the best that the management team could come up with, after having had a few days to gather (counter)facts, is that Mr. Mudge is racist and unpatriotic?! Come on!

Pushed against the wall by facts? This is the easy way out.....

[Voel]

Mudge Considers Legal Action Against Egumbo
Wednesday, 18th of June 2008

By Catherine Sasman

WINDHOEK

Republican Party president, Henk Mudge, said he is considering legal action against allegations of racism by Managing Director of Air Namibia, Cosmos Egumbo.

Responding to Mudge’s claims that the airline has appointed people in positions they are not qualified for under Affirmative Action provisions, and hence compromising the safety of the airline’s passengers and crew, Egumbo at a press briefing claimed that Mudge’s statements were “blatantly racist”.

“To make an apocalyptic statement that somehow people are going to die because there are no so-called experienced and passionate pilots, in other words white people according to him [Mudge] at the helm of our organisation, is the highest form of racial arrogance,” Egumbo among others said.

The anticipated legal action, said Mudge, would provide Egumbo and the airline with ample opportunity to prove him a racist.

“Be that as it may, Mr Egumbo will not be allowed to draw the attention away from the real issues by resorting to these kinds of accusations,” said Mudge, arguing that Egumbo had not addressed the concerns raised by him.

Mudge had accused the airline of nepotism, mismanagement, lack of financial discipline, double standards, and for fast-tracking promotions of insufficiently qualified pilots, at the expense of other qualified Namibian pilots.

Egumbo denied these allegations and accused Mudge of cheap political dabbling, and holding a gripe against the airline because his brother’s application was not successful.

“Again, Mr Egumbo tried to distract the attention from the real issues by directing a low blow to my person by insinuating that my statement was the result of a failed application by one of my relatives.

Mr Egumbo should have done his homework first, because although I accept the fact that he is not familiar with this kind of behaviour, I can assure him that our family’s integrity is above any suspicion and we have never and will never expect to achieve anything by relying on who we know,” said Mudge.

He also challenged Egumbo – who had earlier said that a “more competent” candidate had been chosen for the job, in this instance, William Ekandjo for the position of Senior Manager: Flight – to publicly compare the qualifications and experience of the applicants initially advertised.

He further maintained that the initial qualifications for the job as advertised, had been subsequently changed in the second round to accommodate Ekandjo in the senior managerial position.

Mudge said he will still submit his reasons to President Hifikepunye Pohamba, why he fears Air Namibia’s safety is being compromised.

“Initially, I intended to submit a report, but decided to rather go public for one reason only and that is to put some of the facts on the table, thereby making it easier for the President to have certain specific issues investigated rather than to allow for the possibility of cover-ups should he order an investigation in general,” Mudge said.

[Phoenix Cat]

This article appeared in last weekend's Windhoek Observer:

BY YANNA ERASMUS
The furore regarding Air Namibia continues. The Windhoek Observer, some three weeks ago, received an anonymous letter from an irate individual, regarding the hiring policy of Air Namibia. Our research over this time, has taken us to informants from all sectors within the airline until we eventually, on Tuesday of this week, heard of a letter, drafted by Mr Henk Mudge of the Republican Party. A call to Mr Mudge confirmed that he had indeed written a letter to a high-ranking government official, and that this letter was marked as confidential. He then informed us of a press conference to be held on Thursday, June 12, and we attended. Mr Mudge provided us with very little information that we did not already have.

Our informants, all of whom prefer to remain anonymous, have a common thread in their complaints and these, running parallel to the complaints lodged by Mr Mudge at his conference. Primarily, these pertain to an overtly aggressive affirmative action policy by the airline, where, as the allegations stand, black pilots are promoted ahead of white pilots, irrespective of rank, experience and hours. Furthermore, it is said that these pilots have had to repeat training and certain tests up to three times, to finally make the mark. The pilots referred to are the current senior manager of flight operations, Captain W. Ekandjo and Captain A. Nyandoro, currently flying for the president, who applied for the position of training officer and is currently in training on the 737, because he has no rating for it. Mr Mudge alleges that Mr Nyandoro scraped through his 737 Comair training in South Africa and apparently, the training officer said he “… does not meet the standards and criteria of a pilot expected to fly the 737.”
Another problem the sources have is that apparently, Air Namibia does not want to allow its pilots to fly for other companies anymore, but, Mr Nyandoro is still contracted to the Government Air Transport Service (GATS).
Information that could be gleaned, again from an unnamed source, said in response to this allegation, that it makes financial sense for the airline to work with the government and to ‘share’ pilots, as it is more financially viable than having the president employ a large number of pilots for a few flights. Air Namibia, is after all, funded by the government.
It was also said that for Captain Ekandjo to attain his position, the requirements for the job had to be lowered. This allegation, also made by Mr Mudge in his press conference. The same source from within the airline told this reporter that Mr Ekandjo was fourth in line for the position, and that the first three candidates could not and did not want the position. Below, the clear and emphatic response by the managing director of Air Namibia, Mr Kosmas Egumbo on the matter.
In the letter received, as well as statements made by sources and Mr Mudge, there is also controversy surrounding Captain Fred Kint, recently reappointed but not yet in command. Our sources state that his simulator training on the Airbus A340 in Frankfurt, gave ‘unsatisfactory’ results and that there are sexual harassment charges against him. Mr Mudge claims that his file is gone stating, “… it is more than rumours… a number of sexual harassment cases were filed against him”. We could not source any information from sources or otherwise, bringing us closer to the truth. Air Namibia says there is no record of charges.
Interesting to this reporter is that someone would have had to have made the allegation. If true, why not come forward when given an opportunity?
People who have worked with Captain Kint, state that his personality can be a little abrasive and curt and that this, may have led to a complete misconception. His record, they say, including several years with Singapore Airlines, currently stands without incident.
Further allegations include chaos with rosters, paying of incorrect S&T and pilots not being allowed overlays in London, having to fly back after only ten hours’ rest. This, another informant counters, is in fact a 12-hour rest period and there are only two flights a week. Air Namibia is for the first time in its history, almost breaking even and that these policies are necessary to save funds. If the crew were to overnight, Air Namibia would have to pay four nights’ accommodation and S&T for the 15 crew in London until the next flight comes in for a stopover. They are also fully within the aviation law. In contrast, layovers are procedure for the five flights per week to Frankfurt and, for example, when crew overnight in Cape Town, they stay at Spier Estate. The airline, our informant states, is not victimising its crew.
Allegations of racism from both sides, those pro and anti Air Namibia, abound. What is known however, is that unrelated sources all have a common thread in their complaints. The same three names keep coming up and complaints about rostering, shortage of staff, threats to pilots by senior staff, inept aircraft, no-one taking responsibility for errors made and failure to report incidents to DCA continue to be said. We contacted Mr Kosmas Egumbo, Air Namibia’s managing director at 08h30 on Thursday morning. The answers to out questions are printed below, verbatim. Readers can now decide for themselves for we have been unable to secure a result either way.


Allegations have been made that you were a junior clerk at the town planner and you from there, got the Air Namibia job. Please comment.
All vacant positions at Air Namibia are being advertised either internally or externally, and qualifying applicants are going through a screening and selection process. Air Namibia has policies and procedures in place that govern recruitment processes. The position of Managing Director was duly advertised and qualifying candidates meeting the required qualification and experience were subject to assessments and interviews before the successful candidate was decided upon.
The last position I occupied at the City of Windhoek was Strategic Executive: Planning Urbanisation and Environment. I subsequently took up a position with GTZ and was based in Gaborone and that is the position I held before I joined Air Namibia.


Apparently, Mr W. Ekandjo's job description was lowered in qualifications to appoint him as ops manager. Is this true?
Position of Senior Manager: Flight was advertised (during June & December 2007) and various interested Namibian and foreign individuals (total of nine) went through a transparent screening and selection process. Captain Ekandjo emerged successful after the process with no lowering of standards.

There are allegations that Mr A. Nyandoro has no 737 rating and yet, he flies the aircraft.
Captain Alois Nyandoro has been offered a position with Air Namibia as Head: Training and Standards, for which he was found suitable. He has not yet commenced duty.

Further to this, the consistent hopping between the Falcon and the Air Namibia aircraft has caused some confusion on the flight deck with co-pilots having to assist Captains with the positioning of buttons.
Please comment.
Air Namibia and the Government Air Transport Services (GATS) have a signed agreement in place for the sharing of flight crew as and when the need arises with either Party. So far, only one Air Namibia Captain has had to fly GATS under this Agreement. The said Captain has in excess of 12 000 hours and currently commands the A340 and the Falcon. It is generally acceptable international good practice in aviation to try and limit the number of aircraft types that an airline pilot may safely operate, within the same period. Thus for an airline pilot to fly two variant aircraft types is well within international best practice, especially when such a pilot has more than 10 000 flying hours.

There are allegations that Mr Fred Kint has an unsatisfactory simulator rating and yet, he was employed by Air Namibia again. There are also rumours of sexual harassment against him. Your comments on this?
All pilots flying for the airline have to be licensed on the aircraft type. For a pilot to be licensed on a type, he/she must have successfully completed conversion training on the specific aircraft type. Whilst operating on the type, pilot is required to maintain the rating through successful structured recurrent training. Captain Kint is a very senior airline pilot with more than 30 years of flying experience and more than 18 000 hours.
Air Namibia has a Disciplinary Code and Grievance Procedure in place to address all matters pertaining to employees’ workplace conduct including sexual harassment, should it be reported. Captain Kint has not been charged with such an offence and we strongly discourage the spreading of malicious rumours.

A senior pilot with Air Namibia is said to have written an incident report on several incidents which took place over a period of three years and that this was handed to the DCA who knew nothing of these incidents. Is this true? One of these pertains to an engine failure on the Beechcraft 1900. Can you give me information on the missing auto pilot, broken black boxes and the GPWS systems inoperative on the 1900? Apparently one was forced to complete its Maun route with an excessive leak on the wing and crew had to be changed because the active crew refused to fly.
Air Namibia has a transparent Safety Management System handling all matters of safety and safety concerns as raised by employees flight crew, passengers etc., which information is being constantly shared with the DCA for continuous operational safety improvement . We do not operate unserviceable aircraft.

Pilots resign at a rate of one a month on average. Why is this?
There is a worldwide shortage of pilots and many airlines are losing pilots. We can state that our pilot retention ration is much better that our peers. In the past twelve months, we have only lost four pilots.

Overall, it is said that the Affirmative Action policy is so aggressive at the airline that unqualified or at least, lesser qualified black pilots are promoted ahead of white pilots and further to this, that white pilots, who qualified at the expense of government bursaries, are not getting jobs at the airline.
The black pilots that are employed at Air Namibia and those that move up the ranks meet all the set safety and operational requirements. Management will, in line with Air Namibia’s Affirmative Action Plan, work relentlessly to ensure the safety of our passengers and operations while pursuing a more accurate reflection of the Namibian demographics. Our commitment to safety is further underscored by our tireless effort to acquire IOSA accreditation by end of July 2008, which process is on course and we are now only closing the last few findings.

Is it true that the airline grants interest free loans to black pilots (in the majority) to complete ATPs in the States?
Air Namibia has arranged with a local commercial bank to advance study loans to any (black and non-black) pilots to complete ATPs.

Apparently, rostering, payment of S&T and so on, are in chaos and no-one in management takes responsibility.
We have adequate procedures and responsible officials for processing of all payments and claims as well as crew schedules.

Harassment and victimisation are apparently common in the airline from persons in power, such as Mr Ekandjo. Pilots are threatened to fly under unsafe conditions and if they are ill. You comments on this?
Air Namibia has a flight and duty policy, approved by the DCA, which governs crew utilisation. We have an exemplary safety reporting procedure, enforce discipline and do not condone victimisation..

Tell me about the 3% increase for pilots and the 25% increase for management.
Overall salary adjustments for 2007 (note that the last salary increase for employees was in 2004) was an average of 10 per cent on basic salary, spread across the total staff complement. Individuals on management level received between 3 per cent and 10 per cent and employees between 10 and 20 per cent. Pilots are receiving an automatic 3 per cent notch increase annually on total cost.

[Propellerpilot]

Just for those of you not familiar with the reason why guys from NAM get bursaries to get their ATP in the U.S.A.:

Normally the South African CAA Exams are standard in Namibia. The candidates write in South Africa or Windhoek - in the latter case the paper gets posted to Windhoek and gets posted back to SACAA for marking.

So why do they send people to get their ATP in the States for a lot of money??? The reason is, that those applicants have continously failed to pass the SACAA theory exams as the system is more challenging to pass. So it is basically a back door offered by the DCA for those that government had already subsidised with CPLs in the past in order to able them to receive command positions. There is a lot of money wasted by investing in human resources that did not make the cut - the statistics shown by NATA at a safety meeting called in by the department of transport was shocking.

Even though the questions in the article above were answered in an evasive fashion, the fact remains, that some personnel at Air Namibia seem to be working on minimum standards - yes that might be ok from a legal point of view - but it is to the detriment of others who would perform better and would make the airline safer. Can't argue that.

A good reason not to get involved with this airline is the whole political circus that surrounds it and I know pilots that where an asset to them in the past and have quit.

[VAFFPAX]

And then the putz in charge at Air Namibia has the cheek to claim racism.

I would love to tell him something. Instead of addressing the issues, noooooooooooooooooooo... we'll just claim the man is racist and he's got a problem.

From what I heard, ol' Henk has asked for an audience with El Prez to show him what he has. As long as Pohamba actually listens.

S.

[Dogship]

And ol' Henk has received audience with Preez this week....Wait and see to see nothing happen?

[eish]

Shame, the guys at Air Namibia must feel as if they fly for the Government Air Transport Voluntary Operations League (GATVOL):E

[Voel]

Aviation a complete disaster
Written by Concerned Citizen
Thursday, 26 June 2008

Dear Editor,

I am concerned with how aviation is being run in this country and I am directing my concern to the Honourable Minister of Works and Transport, Mr. Helmut Angula.


Minister, there have been too many accidents since the beginning of this year. These kind of incidents are a very big threat to our country, especially to the tourism industry.
I would like to ask the Honourable Minister, how the appointment of the Director of Civil Aviation was done. What kind of aviation background, if any does the current Director have? What criteria was followed leading up to her appointment? I can assure you Honourable Minister, that with this lady running the office, disasters will always be imminent, whether we like it or not.
A prime example is the fatal aircraft accident that killed six people on board in early January. Managed by a company called Pleasure Flights and Safaris, it was mentioned in one of our local media, that their operating papers were suspended because of their bad safety record. This Aviation Director gave the operating papers back to the company before the investigation even took place! How does she work for God’s sake?
And now I hear that the aircraft that crashed recently in Swakopmund, with yet another six people on board was run by the same company, Pleasure Flight and Safaris. This accident could have been avoided had the company remained under suspension to sort out their safety issues. Why did she give the operating papers back to them in the first place? Something is really fishy here.
Our aviation industry needs to be run by experienced and competent people Honourable Minister, and I think there are people out there who are equipped to run this office efficiently. This matter needs to be looked at very seriously before things get out of hand

[kingpost]

I know two of the guys who applied from Emirates for the Senior Manager Flight Ops job. In both cases Air Namibia never came back to them, not a phone call, letter or email. The above mentioned two are armed with B.Comm's, MSc in Aviation Management and an MBA and plenty of airline experience.

I'm sure they're grateful they never got the appointment otherwise they'll have to deal with the AA crap. You'll all see a change when Air Namibia get banned from flying to Europe - it's coming

[VAFFPAX]

I'll miss that Namibian flag at LGW...

Actually, I've missed the old logo (the sun with the flamingo of Namib Air) for decades... the 'new' tail job sucks.

:-)

S.