Nationwide grounded

[sticktime]

I think the future of Nationwide, if they get back on line, is in the hands of the public, and that is not good !! Alot of inocent people will loose there jobs.

[Gymnogene]

It is interesting that all these maintenance non-compliances were only found when representatives from the NTSB and Boeing got involved with the investigation into the engine loss.
IATA have also got egg on their faces as they gave Nationwide their IOSA certification recently with these non-compliances in place. Maybe IATA should audit their audit teams.

[Romeo E.T.]

from News24.com

Nationwide could shut down
02/12/2007 09:12 - (SA)


S'Thembiso Hlongwane

Johannesburg - Speculation is rife that domestic airline Nationwide may be forced to close shop.

On Friday Nationwide staff scrambled to deal with irate passengers left stranded at airports after the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had suspended the airline's Aviation Maintenance Organisation (AMO) licence late last on Thursday, effectively grounding all its aircraft.

The airline had hoped to have dealt with the matter before Friday and had not informed passengers of the problem, which led to scores of people, including children going on school trips, being left stranded and frustrated at airports.

Guy Lietch of SA Flyer magazine says Nationwide CEO Vernon Bricknell, who started the company from humble beginnings as a one-man charter operator for the UN on food flights into Africa, could be forced to close shop.

"It's unlikely that Nationwide will recover from CAA's decision. It will take sometime before they can return to the sky, maybe two or three months if they are lucky to find AMO at short notice," says Lietch.

Lietch says with the airline having already cancelled 60 flights, including one to London and two to Livingstone, Zambia, on Friday night, it will be extremely difficult to return to profitability.

"The big question is, can Bricknell manage to keep the company afloat while paying all his staff on time?" asks Lietch.

Phindiwe Gwebu, CAA spokesperson, said on Saturday that a part collected from a Nationwide plane's engine could not be traced to its original supplier, fuelling speculation that some fitted parts could be counterfeit.

"At this stage we are still investigating and cannot say if all the parts are original or pirated."

She said the aviation authority had been forced to ground the planes because the airline's maintenance division had failed to comply with safety regulations.

Last month Nationwide flight CE723 lost part of its engine as it was taking off from Cape Town Airport.

And Nationwide's problems could increase.

On Saturday Comair, which operates Kulula.com and British Airways in South Africa, withdrew its earlier offer to help fly stranded Nationwide passengers.

Comair officials said the decision was taken after Nationwide's tickets were declared void by the International Air Transport Association.

In a letter to customers posted on Nationwide's website on Friday, Bricknell tried to reassure travellers that they could re-book their flights or have their tickets refunded.

"With immediate effect, all flights have been suspended until further notice," said Bricknell in the letter.

"We have approached the CAA for further details and guidance in respect of any actions they would like us to implement that would enable them to reinstate the AMO's licence, at which point normal operations will resume."

Dirk Hermann, a spokesperson for the trade union, Solidarity, says Nationwide, which employs more than a 1 000 people, is in serious trouble.

"The situation looks bleak. Our lawyers are busy preparing a business rescue plan. We are worried about the well-being of the company and the staff," says Hermann.

By late on Saturday Bricknell could not be reached for comment.

__________________

[Romeo E.T.]

STATEMENT BY THE CEO, NATIONWIDE AIRLINES

01 December 2007 – 16:45

STATEMENT BY THE CEO, NATIONWIDE AIRLINES

01 December 2007 – 16:45

On behalf of Nationwide Airlines, I would like to apologise to our customers and the travelling public who have experienced inconvenience and distress since Friday, the first day of the busy summer holiday season.

The entire management team and staff have been working around the clock to resolve the crisis with the aim of resuming normal flight operations as quickly as possible.

So far we have had to cancel more than 90 flights serving Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Mpumalanga, George, Livingstone and London-Gatwick. This has impacted about 9,000 travellers.

While our services are disrupted, our ticket-holders have the option of re-booking or obtaining full refunds.

Since establishing Nationwide Airlines in 1995 I have regarded the safety of our passengers, staff and equipment as my top priority. Safety is not negotiable, has not and will not be compromised in any way.

As part of our ongoing safety programme, in 2006, we underwent the International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit (IOSA). IOSA is an audit of the management and control processes of an airline based on exacting standards developed in cooperation with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO - the UN body which sets global standards for civil aviation) and regulatory bodies including US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Transport Canada and Europe’s Joint Aviation Authority. It is one of a number of measures designed to ensure high levels of safety. Nationwide passed this audit and received its IOSA certificate in April.

After several requests, last night we received a communiqué from the South African Civil Aviation Authority specifying its concerns. In the main, the CAA’s concerns relate to the administrative systems in our AMO. The CAA has not raised any concerns that relate directly to any of our aircraft.

Most of these issues were raised by the CAA after their initial audit in September following which we implemented the necessary remedial actions.

At that time, we undertook to submit a thorough action plan to the CAA before the close of business on 30 November 2007, ie. yesterday. As promised, we sent this action plan to the CAA yesterday for its consideration.

In addition, we have also advised the CAA of the various improvements and enhancements we have made to our AMO over the past three months and other steps we have taken to ensure the continued integrity of our operation.

They include:

The appointment of a new Accountable Manager for the AMO at the end of October.
The appointment of a new Planning Manager and a new Reliability Specialist.
All life-limited components – including all safety/emergency equipment were checked and found to be within their limits.
Updating our component life-monitoring data capture software with greater audit capabilities.
The establishment of a Corporate Quality Department to exercise quality management across every aspect of the company, including maintenance.
Labelling of our grease guns to provide clear indications of when they were last filled and the batch information of the specific grease.
Introduced a new system for checking the personal tool boxes of engineers after each aircraft’s maintenance check instead of once per month.
Disposal of unserviceable electrolyte battery cells in a controlled manner.
New storage and issuing arrangements for distilled water (used for batteries).
New storage and record-keeping procedures for batteries.
Verification of all aircraft Release for Service certificates and the correction of one certificate which was found to have been incorrectly completed.
On the 23rd November 2007 and following inspections by the SA CAA of our Aviation Maintenance Organization (AMO), the license for the AMO was renewed and issued.

From the 23rd November until the 29th November 2007 no further inspection was performed by the SA CAA, nor were we advised of any concerns on the part of the CAA.

Subsequently, the suspension of our AMO license on the 29th November late at night, and thus the grounding of our fleet came as a total surprise. Only following the suspension of our license on the 30th November, did the SA CAA inform us that they apparently had certain concerns relating to maintenance work conducted subsequent to the issuance of an Airworthiness Directive as issued by the authority on the 9th November.

As a result, allegations have been made in various media reports that we have fitted ‘bogus’ or ‘pirate’ parts to our aircraft. These allegations are totally false.

Certain rumours have surfaced which we would like to address. Whilst technical, the following information is complete and accurate:

On the 7th November whilst departing from Cape Town, Nationwide Airlines lost the number two engine on one of the Boeing 737-200 aircraft. As a result of the incident the SA CAA promulgated an Airworthiness Directive (AD) which called for a “Non Destructive Testing (NDT)” inspection of all the engine mountings and attachment bolts. The SA CAA also required that all operators of the B737-200 verify if all the previously issued FAA AD’s and Boeing Service Bulletins (SB) had been complied with.
This South African AD was carried out on Nationwide 737-200s and detailed confirmations were provided to the SA CAA on completion of each aircraft. During an inspection of the records it was noted that the technician who signed-off the AD on the last aircraft did not enter the part number and serial number of one of the cone bolts on the required form. When this was brought to our attention, we immediately issued an instruction for the removal of that particular cone bolt. On inspection of the cone bolt we noted that half of the serial number and part number were no longer visible under normal light as the indelible ink could no longer be read, however under a bright light, the full part number and serial number could be identified by the footprint of the ink into the metal. This cone bolt was taken to the SA CAA and shown to the relevant inspector. We also produced the relevant records of the NDT inspection for this cone bolt. As a result, a replacement cone bolt was installed to prevent any further confusion.
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.
Nationwide does not use “pirate” parts. We only purchase and use legitimate aircraft components from authorised suppliers with the required release documentation.
IATA has not withdrawn Nationwide’s membership to the association. It has simply suspended our participation in its billing and settlement programme which is a mechanism for exchanging money between airlines – this is normal protocol in such circumstances and does not represent abnormal activity by IATA.
Nationwide is not bankrupt and has not filed for liquidation. We are a financially secure and sound company.
With regard to our engine separation incident of 07 November 2007, we have been informed that the preliminary report from the University of Pretoria (Metallurgic Facility) found a recent fatigue crack which caused the failure of the aft primary engine mount and thus the engine separation. I would like to place on record that this bolt was by no means a ‘bogus bolt’ as reported in the media. We are in possession of all relevant NDT records which substantiate the correct testing of all our bolts at the time of engine installation. Our bolt failure is not an isolated incident. This is the 6th Boeing 737 (including major US airlines) which incurred the same problem resulting in the number two engine separation.

Nationwide makes a vital contribution to the South African and regional economy, providing much-needed airlift capacity for people and goods and supporting trade, tourism and economic development. We remain committed to serving our customers and the region with safe, reliable and affordable air transport.


Issued by:
Vernon Bricknell
Chief Executive Officer, Nationwide Airlines

[flyboy2]

Nationwide leases plane for London flight

Johannesburg, South Africa
02 December 2007 11:22
Grounded carrier Nationwide has leased an aircraft from Dutch airline KLM to fly passengers to London on Sunday night, said the South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
However, Nationwide would have to prove that this aircraft complied with civil aviation safety requirements before it would be allowed to fly, said CAA spokesperson Phindiwe Gwebu.
She said three CAA inspectors were examining the aircraft on Sunday morning to ensure it was properly maintained.
CAA aircraft safety executive manager Obert Chakarisa was going to OR Tambo International Airport himself to inspect the aircraft too, she said.
Nationwide was grounded on Friday after the CAA suspended its approval of the airline's aircraft-maintenance organisation and the certificates of airworthiness of Nationwide's fleet of 16 aircraft -- twelve 737-200s, three 727s and one 767.
The airline lodged an appeal against the decision with acting CAA commissioner Gawie Bestbier on Friday.
Gwebu confirmed that the CAA had received the appeal, but said the CAA was not finished with it yet.
Bestbier had told Nationwide "exactly what he wants them to do to comply", she said.
"We are still waiting for their response."
Gwebu also confirmed that the CAA had received a request from Nationwide to use an aircraft leased from KLM to fly passengers to London on Sunday.
Although KLM took responsibility for this aircraft, Nationwide was nonetheless required to prove its airworthiness.
Nationwide flies to London and Livingstone, in Zambia, and between Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, George, Mpumalanga.
Although Comair initially offered to honour Nationwide tickets on British Airways and kulula.com flights, it later backtracked.
This after Nationwide's tickets were declared void by the International Air Transport Association and it was suspended as a participating carrier in the Bank Settlement Plan, which distributes funds to travel agents for bookings made with airlines.
Nationwide was offering full refunds to passengers or to change their tickets for flights on later dates.
Describing the grounding as "unavoidable", the CAA said on Friday that it could not afford to be reckless as it was dealing with human lives.
The CAA said the grounding was not a result of the drama at Cape Town International Airport on November 7, when a Nationwide Johannesburg-bound Boeing 737 lost one of its two engines on take-off, yet managed to land safely half an hour later.
It was rather over maintenance concerns that arose during consideration of the airline's application for the annual renewal of its airline maintenance organisation licence.
The airline's failure to fix deficiencies identified during this process was compounded by its failure to comply with airworthiness directives issued in response to the engine incident, the CAA said.
It could give no indication of how long it might take the airline to meet the requirements needed for the lifting of the suspension, but warned that if it failed to do so its licence could be revoked altogether. -- Sapa
Source:http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx...ews__national/

[E-tjops]

My heart goes out for all the honest hard working staff at Nationwide. Being a crewmember from the opposition, I do not wish it on anybody, especially just before the festive season. I can just imagine how tough must it be for you guys not knowing what you future holds. I REALLY hope Nationwide will be able to get themselves back in the air ASAP!!! Good luck and hang in there.

As for VB…hmmmmm. His initial statement concerning the B732 that lost a donkey a few weeks ago, was due to FOD, just confirmed what a BIG BULLSHTTER he is. Get your act together, you have the lives of hundreds of families in your hands.

[RunwayBlueOne]

At a press conference today he admitted that it was not FOD and he's hopeful that they will be flying by the end of the week.

[sticktime]

What are they trying to prove !!! All over a KLM aircraft Sounds like a pub stunt to me, as if they they are going to find something on KLM ! Who do they think they are trying to fool I must admit Iv seen this type of thing when working in africa, and that was to try and get a bribe from the opperator, SO what now ?? Where are we going....?...... South Africa 'O' South Africa ...............

[Jamex]

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.

[Woof etc]

Some observations:

Considering that failure of these cone bolts is a known factor (as pointed out by VB), surely these components would be under scrutiny for fatigue cracking (NDT inspections) How did the defective bolts slip through the system? -fatigue cracks take time to develop.

If the CAAs assertion that there were deficiencies in NW maintenance procedures, and considering that it was only a modicum of good luck and exemplerary flying by the aircrew that prevented a catastrophy, then the CAA failed completely in it's role of protecting the safety of the flying public. Why did it take a major incident to invoke CAA action? This indicates a complete failure of their auditing and oversight function.

A well worded statement from Nationwide (factual accuracy to be verified).

[flyknight]

E-tjops you've said it all. I feel for all the Nationwide employees. Unfortunately saftey in non-negotiable and sometimes you have to spend money to keep airplanes flying

[kaviation]

This is the biggest witch hunt! I hope VB fights this. To all the CE crew, hang in there.

[Shrike200]

I'm still not really sure why the AMO licence was suspended. The CAA blah blahed on about 'safety, lives at risk etc etc', but they haven't actually mentioned what specific issues they have with Nwides AMO, and what needs to be done to get things going again - or is it the 'non-identifiable parts' issue? VB seems to refute that - I must say, due to the technical nature of this, the press, and the public, clueless as they are, are just going to buy into the CAA actions, regardless of their merit. This whole issue is being muddied by CAA randomness. Maybe Nwide have some issues, but with our CAA, it's not so clear cut at all. And VB was right, this has occured before, and it wasn't detected then either. Maybe Boeing need to shorten the mounting bolt NDT inspection/replacement period? It's a pity VB punted that obvious FOD rubbish so soon after the accident.

[Antman]

The losers in all this are the poor employees.
I think its time VB stopped trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes.
First the FOD story about the Cape Town incedent.
Now this

As part of our ongoing safety programme, in 2006, we underwent the International Air Transport Association Operational Safety Audit (IOSA). IOSA is an audit of the management and control processes of an airline based on exacting standards developed in cooperation with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO - the UN body which sets global standards for civil aviation) and regulatory bodies including US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Transport Canada and Europe’s Joint Aviation Authority. It is one of a number of measures designed to ensure high levels of safety. Nationwide passed this audit and received its IOSA certificate in April.

It's an IATA audit, nothing to do with ICAO, from the IOSA website

The IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) Programme is an internationally recognised and accepted evaluation system designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline. IOSA uses internationally recognised quality audit principles, and is designed so that audits are conducted in a standardised and consistent manner.

Maybe in a situations like these you need to be totally honest and avoid spin.

[Springola]

An IOSA certification is no walk in the park and I personally feel that the CAA have gone overboard in grounding Nationwide, especially their B767 operation. Also, the timing of the grounding is questionable. This probably has a lot more to do with the pressure the CAA is under from the FAA than anything else, and Nationwide is the sacrificial lamb.

There are many African operators flying into SA airspace with aircraft which would not qualify for Part 91 ops, let alone Part 121.

[Siguarda al fine]

This whole fiasco is a disgrace and a blight upon the industry, the CAA (Campaign Against Aviation ) have plunged to depths of moronic stupidity never before seen.
I am happy I took the decission to throw my CAA issued professional pilots license in the bin where it belongs with the morons that issued it.

[rockpecker]

On finals for 03L yesterday, seeing all the NTW aeries standing at the Equity hangars.... One of the saddest scenes I've seen in a long time. Really heartbreaking. They need to fly to "stay alive", as pilots do. Whatever all the elements causing this whole mess, whatever criticism there may be for VB, the whole operation does not deserve to die. I hope its sorted soon, and that there is still a chance for survival. Holding thumbs and praying for all you guys at NTW.

[fluffyfan]

Nationwide have had hard times before, and I am sure they will come out of this, however a little worrying was the poll on the News24 site concerning Nationwide.......thats not good, its taken Nationwide a long time to build there reputation.

[mary_hinge]

Preliminary investigations have discovered a fatigue crack in the aft engine mount of the Nationwide Airlines Boeing 737-200 which shed its right-hand powerplant on take-off last month.
The finding follows the South African civil aviation authority’s 29 November decision to ground the carrier pending airworthiness and maintenance checks. The airline has had to cancel more than 90 flights across its network.

[Siguarda al fine]

Quis custodiet Ipsos custodes?