The Tribune

By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

DESPITE “some deficiencies”, Director of Aviation and Deputy Director General of Tourism Dr Kenneth Romer said he is confident the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is “audit ready”.

Speaking to The Tribune at the opening ceremony for Aviation Week, Mr Romer said there are usually deficiencies found across the region during the Federal Aviation Authority’s (FAA) audits and that the CAA and Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation Chester Cooper will meet to discuss the initial findings next week.

He said: “When it comes to the audit, the audit is very fierce. So we are actually going to be meeting next week, with the Deputy Prime Minister and Civil Aviation and discussing the initial findings of those audits.

“The Bahamas again has a very good history of remedying any actions that needs to be corrected in the aftermath of any audit. But all of our practices have made us audit ready.

“There will be some deficiencies. There are normally deficiencies across the entire region whenever their audits been done.”

He added that CAA has appointed an audit committee and is “proactive” in ensuring relevant stakeholders comply with best practices.

He said: “We try to be very proactive in our approach. So we did have in place an audit-ready committee and we’re very comfortable that the outcome of the audit, will speak to the preparation civil aviation and our stakeholders have been putting in place to ensure that we are complying with best practices.”

Earlier this month, Flamingo Air was grounded when the boarding ladder on an aircraft deployed mid-flight. The Civil Aviation Authority suspended their operations and launched investigations after a video of the aircraft’s opened door hovering over Bahamian waters went viral on social media. The airline was given clearance to resume services last week.

Dr Romer said millions of passengers travel through our air space annually and incidents “are going to happen”. He insisted the CAA has adopted a culture of aviation safety and gives these incidents the “highest attention”.

He said: “We have millions of passengers who traverse our air space. We have thousands of air traffic movements to The Bahamas and through The Bahamas. Incidences as it relates to aircraft concerns are going to happen but we have a culture that speaks again to aviation safety.

“Air traffic controllers are doing a wonderful job, Civil Aviation Authority. Whenever incidences arise, I want the traveling public to be assured that it will be given the highest attention. Our Civil Aviation Authority, all of our agencies have been armed and equipped.”

He added that the CAA is meeting with airline operators to discuss how they can make their aircrafts “more air worthy” and maintained the CAA is “fully committed” to ensuring the safety of travellers.

He said: “We don’t want to be reactive in nature, we are proactive, so we are meeting again with our airline operators. We’re addressing concerns about how to ensure that they make their crafts more air worthy and how can we update elements of their customer service.

“We don’t want to respond when something happens, we want to be able to partner with them to prevent incidents from happening. But I think our traveling public can be assured that we are fully committed to the safety and security when it comes to them traversing our air spaces.”