Nation Wide press statement extract
In 2005 we purchased a new hydrostatic bench test for the purpose of testing our oxygen bottles. This test bench was inspected and approved by the Civil Aviation Authority with the necessary certification issued. During our September 2007 audit we were informed that the CAA should not have originally certified this test bench without it first being certified by the Department of Labour. As the CAA had approved this installation, we were not aware that further approvals were required. As a result, the CAA suspended our ability to certify further testing on this unit until such time that we had achieved conformity with the Occupational Health and Safety Act. This we accepted and discontinued the use of the test facility pending approval from the Department of Labour. After the aircraft incident of engine separation, we had a further full inspection of the AMO by the SA CAA. During this audit it was brought to our attention that our corrective action was not deemed satisfactory as we had not recalled the bottles which had been tested during the previous two years prior to our certification being suspended. It should be noted that our action plan submitted to the authority at the time of the audit was accepted – this did not call for the recall of such bottles. Subsequently, the bottles that had been certified by hydrostatic test bench were withdrawn from service.
The part I find interesting is the fact that SACAA seem to be guilty of moving the goalposts! They make recommendations, then it becomes "eish actually this Hydrostatic Test Bench should not have been approved by us and now you may not use your already approved facility!" Then an action plan is submitted and approved and again "Eish, you did not withdraw the bottles already tested on your approved bench and, even though we approved your action plan where this discrepancy was clearly not handled, but we approved it anyway, you are still in contravention and we are now going to do you possibly irreparable damage which may even cause your demise, but thats your problem and not ours." Guys, this is really a worrying sign. If the CAA is going to blithely ignore their own mistakes and still penalise the operators, then ALL operators in SA have a huge problem looming. This is an abuse of power ranking with dictatorship.