The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA)’s audit report on the activities of Azman Air has identified several gaps which the airline would have to close before resuming operations.
This is just as the airline has commenced moves to close the identified gaps with the rejigging of the maintenance department.
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NCAA had in March suspended the activities of Azman Air because of safety concerns.
Daily Trust learnt Sunday that the Airline has fired its Head of Maintenance as part of its action plan aimed at implementing the findings of the NCAA audit team.
A copy of the audit report sighted by our correspondent on Sunday indicated that the airline, which was suspended on 15th March 2021 over serial safety infractions was in violation of many provisions of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs) prior to its suspension.
The audit covered Management, Flight Operations, Maintenance and Economic audit premised on the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations Nig.CARs Part 9, NCARs Parts 1, 2, 5, 6, 8,9 & 20 and Nigeria Civil Aviation Act 2006 NCARs Part 18.
The 19-page audit report was signed by the Director-General of the NCAA, Captain Nuhu Musa and dated April 2nd, 2021.
In the report, 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.
The NCAA also queried the safety and quality Management systems of the airline.
According to the report, the Safety Management Department and staffing of the Quality Management Department with only one officer 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.
The Accountable Manager, according to the report, exhibited a lack of understanding of his duties and responsibilities as contained in the Operation’s Manuals.
This is further evidenced by the lack of evidence of the Accountable Manager’s involvement in Management Reviews of Quality Audit Findings.
Azman was found also 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 (e.g 5N-SYS) revealed a number of exceedances and the DFO could not show any evidence of actions taken to check the trend.”
The report also stated that Azman violated 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, the report said.
Also, the airline was said to have violated Section 12 (1) of Civil Aviation Act, 2006 by failing to remit 5% TSC/CSC with the airline indebted to the tune of over N1.5bn.
But the airline is said to be taking serious actions to close the gaps.
Apart from firing the maintenance head, the airline has also separated the Safety and Quality Department which was previously merged while it has advertised for a New Safety Manager.
A spokesperson with the airline, Mr Nura Aliyu, who spoke with Daily Trust last night, said: “We have started actions on the findings.”
He expressed optimism that all the gaps identified by the NCAA would be closed within the week to enable the airline to resume operation as soon as possible.
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