NCAA releases findings on Azman airline

Azman Air may be in for a tough time as the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in its findings after the investigations carried out on the airline has found it wanting.

The investigations were conducted by the NCAA after suspending the airline last month over violation of safety issues.

In the findings released by the NCAA from the 19 paged audit findings which were signed by the Director-General, Captain Nuhu Musa on April 2, 2021, It was discovered that in the case of management personnel required for Commercial Air transport Operations, Azman Air was found not to be in compliance with the provisions of Nig.CARs 9.2.2.2 (a) and (e) (2) with regards to the provision of resources and discharge of the duties of the Accountable Manager.

According to the audit report, the violation was evidenced by complete non­ staffing of the Safety Management Department and staffing of the Quality Management Department with only one officer, thereby which made it impossible to effectively implement Safety and Quality Management Systems functions as required by Nig.CARs 9.2.2.3 and 9.2.2.10, respectively.

According to the findings, the Accountable Manager of the airline exhibited a lack of understanding of his duties and responsibilities as contained in the Operations Manuals. This is further evidenced by the lack of evidence of the Accountable Manager’s involvement in Management Reviews of Quality Audit Findings.

The airline was again discovered not to be in compliance with the provisions of Nig.CARs 9.2.2.2 (e) (2) with regards to discharge of the duties of the Director of Flight Operations thereby unable to maintain safe commercial flight operations:

“This is evidenced by the fact that FDR analysis on the B737 (eg 5N-SYS) revealed a number of exceedances and the DFO could not show any evidence of actions taken to check the trend.

“This is further evidenced by lack of demonstration of knowledge of the Nig. CARs related to Flight Data Analysis and Flight Operations Management in general. Thirdly, this is evidenced by lack of safety officer(s) in the flight operations department to support the Flight Data Analysis Programme (Nig.CARs 9.2.2.11).”

The NCAA audit also indicted the airline’s the DFO of exhibiting a lack of understanding of his duties and responsibilities as contained in the Operations Manuals. Fourthly, there is evidence of poor safety culture promoted by the absence of evidence of concrete action on clear safety violations by the flight crew, eg, failure to make required entries in the technical log.

Azman was found not to be in compliance with the provisions of Nig.CARs 9.2.2.2 (e) (2) and (3)(i) with regards to discharge of the duties of the Chief Pilot, thereby unable to maintain safe commercial flight operations:

“This is evidenced by the fact that the Chief Pilot did not know that some of his pilots were overdue for SMS, CRM training, etc, and were not making technical log entries and signing voyage reports as required by Nig.CARs 8.5.1.19.”

The Chief Pilot was equally indicted for exhibiting a lack of understanding of his duties and responsibilities as contained in the Operations Manuals.

Azman, according to the manual, was found not to be in compliance with the provisions of Nig.CARs 9.2.2.2 (e) (2) with regards to discharge of the duties of the Director of Maintenance to maintain safe commercial flight operations: evidenced by the fact that the Director of Maintenance, who was granted a temporary acceptance by the Authority to act in this capacity for six(6) months ( expiring on March 22, 2021) demonstrated complete lack of knowledge of Nig.CARs and approved Maintenance Control Manual procedures and therefore Azman Air ceased to have a DOM after March 22, 2021.

The DOM also failed to ensure that approved Maintenance Control Manual Procedures are effectively implemented which led to numerous safety-critical non-conformities including lack of access to maintenance data by the engineers in Abuja; lack of effective tool control (eg use of bogus pressure gauge with an incorrect calibration certificate in Abuja).

Azman Air Ltd was also found not to be in compliance with the Nig.CARs 9.3.1.2, with respect to the provision of current Operations Manual to officers involved in operational control. This is evidenced by Azman’s inability to provide a current copy of the Company’s Emergency Response Plan ( this is a repeat finding ) as required by Nig.CAR 9.3.1.2(g)(7)

The airline was indicted for not being in compliance with Nig.CAR 9.2.2.11 regarding Flight Safety Programme. This is evidenced by the fact that, though, Azman Air has a robust flight data monitoring system arrangement with Flight Technics, who constantly furnish Azman Air with flight data reports, these reports stop at reception with no further actions to address unsafe issues captured.

The airline was found not to be in compliance with the provisions of Nig.CARs 9.2.2.10 and 20.3.1.1, relating to Safety Management System establishment

The audit also revealed how the airline lacked Safety Manager or Safety Officers to run the Safety Management System saying lack of this has also resulted in poor management of Flight Data Monitoring Reports for safety improvements

Azman Airline was found to be in violation of Nig.CARs 18.10.3 regarding the submission of monthly financial health reports to the NCAA.

“This is evidenced in Azman Air’s failure to meet up with the monthly obligation in submitting the required financial health report for months despite several reminders. The last submission was in July 2020. During this audit, Azman submitted reports for December 2020 and January 2021.

Azman Air Ltd was among others found to be in violation of Section 12 (1) of Civil Aviation Act, 2006 as regards to non-remittance of 5 per cent TSC/CSC. This is evidenced by the airline being indebted to the Authority to the tune of One billion Five Hundred and Forty-Five Million, Two hundred and Sixty-Two thousand One hundred and Twenty Naira, Thirty-One kobo (N1,545,262,120.31) as of December 2020.

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