When we fly, we take it for granted that all safety checks and regulations are up to date.

I mean, it’s a giant metal tube flying through the sky, so it’s in everyone’s best interests to make sure that thing is fully operational.

And yet, the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) grounded CemAir flights for 24 hours on Wednesday, following their alleged contravention of legislation and civil aviation regulations.

Yeah, the same civil aviation regulations put in place to make sure that that giant metal tube stays airborne.

Here’s IOL:

The Johannesburg-based airline, operating flights between Cape Town and Plettenberg Bay, as well as Cape Town and Hoedspruit, could neither produce nor demonstrate the appointment of an approved and suitably qualified “responsible person: flight operations” – a critical position as required by the Civil Aviation Regulations, said Simon Segwabe, the executive for aviation safety operations at the time of the audit.

This basically means that they don’t have anyone working for the airline who is able to ensure that the operations of that airline are safe.

CemAir will be back in the sky today just after lunchtime (1:30PM is the provisional time), but I won’t be booking a flight anytime soon.

This from TimesLIVE.

“This malpractice demonstrates that CemAir is intentionally violating applicable Civil Aviation Regulations,” SACAA said. “Their actions in this regard therefore pose an immediate and serious safety hazard and risk to the public at large as well as other airspace users and its crew, and passengers. This decision, which regrettably affects travellers, is made in the interests of advancing aviation safety.”

Safety first is definitely key when it comes to aviation.

It might be worth taking a look at some other aviation options.

[source:iol&timeslive]