US FAA finds RP unsafe port of origin, downgrades rating
By Veronica Uy, Tarra Quismundo
INQUIRER.net, Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE 2) The United States’ Federal Aviation Administration has found the Philippines to be an unsafe port of origin, downgrading the country's rating in its international air safety assessment.
The FAA included the Philippines in a list of 21 countries that failed to “provide safety oversight of its air carrier operators in accordance with the minimum safety oversight standards established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).”
In its new
Flight Standards Service-International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) released January 8, the FAA downgraded the country’s rating from category 1 to category 2.
Countries that fall under category 1 are those which comply with ICAO aviation safety standards, while those that fall under category 2 do not, the FAA said on its website.
"The downgrading means the ATO (Air Transportation Office) has no sufficient qualified personnel and equipment. The FAA also cited that ATO regulations date back to [a law] passed in 1952, which is not updated," said ATO officer-in-charge Danilo Dimagiba.
"But we are rectifying it right now and we have five ICAO experts here to assist the local boys to comply with pending requirements of the FAA. We can [have the downgrade lifted] within the year," added Dimagiba when reached by phone Monday afternoon.
FAA's IASA program assesses "a country's ability, not the individual air carrier, to adhere to international standards and recommended practices for aircraft operations and maintenance."
Aside from the Philippines, Bangladesh, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Guyana, Indonesia, Ukraine, Serbia and Montenegro (formerly Yugoslavia), and Nauru fall under Category 2 -- locally-licensed airlines operating in the US -- in the two-class grouping.
Carriers from these countries will still be allowed to operate in the US at their current levels but under heightened FAA surveillance.
“Expansion or changes in services to the United States by such carriers are not permitted while in category 2, although new services will be permitted if operated using aircraft wet-leased from a duly authorized and properly supervised US carrier or a foreign air carrier from a category 1 country that is authorized to serve the United States using its own aircraft,” the FAA said.
The technical evaluation checks on a country's airworthiness, maintenance, inspection, licensing and certification standards and practices, and looks at whether civil aviation personnel are trained well enough to ensure that all aircraft, airlines, pilots and other airmen that operate in the country comply with international standards.
During a safety audit sometime July last year, the FAA found that the Philippines’ airworthiness below ICAO standards and pilot inspectors lacked training and refreshers, and that there was "no regulatory guidance" for airmen licensure examinations.
Manila International Airport Authority General Manager Alfonso Cusi meanwhile said the rating does not render the Philippine airports unsafe as the assessment does not apply to airport safety and security.
The Philippines was rated ICAO-compliant, or Category 1, in the last FAA assessment in 2002, but it came with a warning that the country might fall short of international standards, Dimagiba said. The country passed in FAA's initial assessment in 1995, but fell to Category 2 shortly after. It regained Category 1 rating in 1997.
Dimagiba said the rating would have no effect on air travel between the Philippines and the US in general, but flights of flag-carrier Philippine Airlines in the US might have to contend with limitations.
FAA regulations provide for limits on US operations of airlines licensed in Category 2 countries. Of Philippine-licensed carriers, only PAL has flights in the US.
"PAL will be affected ... they can no longer have additional flights to the US and whenever their plane lands in the LA (Los Angeles) for instance, there will be an FAA inspection of the aircraft," said Dimagiba.
He said the FAA evaluation would even help ATO push for pending legislation to turn the ATO into an authority, enjoying fiscal autonomy from government. The bill creating a Philippine Civil Aviation Authority is pending in the Senate, Dimagiba said.
When asked how the FAA rating would affect carriers and travellers, Rebecca Thompson, spokesperson of the US embassy in Manila, said the report is directed at the local civil aviation authority, not at the local carriers or the travellers who take the local carriers.
In a phone interview with INQUIRER.net, she confirmed that the FAA rating would limit the expansion of operations of the local carriers from the Philippines in the United States.