For improvement of safety oversight capabilities by strengthening weak elements, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has unveiled its five-year plan titled ‘Nepal Aviation Safety Plan (NASP)’.
The five-year (2018 to 2022) plan has been developed as per the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)’s global safety plan.
The plan includes three goals – continuous reduction of operational safety risks, strengthening safety oversight capabilities and implementing state safety programme.
“The plan aims to continually enhance aviation safety performance by reducing fatalities and risks of fatalities by developing and implementing harmonised safety strategy,” said Birendra Shrestha, spokesperson for CAAN.
The plan is useful for strengthening weak elements like lack of qualified technical personnel and resolution of safety issues, which were identified during ICAO audit.
According to Shrestha, the NASP aims to improve in the areas of organisation (ORG), aircraft accident and incident investigation (AIG) and air navigation services (ANS), which have been identified as safety deficient areas.
The plan includes accelerating the process of implementing state safety programme (SSP). CAAN has recognised NASP as important for safety risk analysis for identification of hazards and mitigation of operational safety risks.
Moreover, the plan has identified the need to address five safety deficiencies – to develop comprehensive regulatory oversight framework, establishment of an independent accident and incident investigation authority (IAIIA), qualified technical personnel to support effective safety oversight, strategic collaboration with key aviation stakeholders to enhance safety in a coordinated manner and continued implementation of compliance with ICAO framework.
For establishment of IAIIA, it plans to develop an effective system to promulgate technical guidance and tools to provide critical information needed for technical personnel by 2020. Likewise, it plans to establish an effective system to attract, recruit, train and retain qualified and sufficient technical personnel to support regulatory oversight by 2019 and establish technical personnel to support accident and incident investigation by 2019.
In addition, the NASP has identified six operational risks, which include controlled flight into terrain, loss of control in flight, mid-air collision, runway incursion, runway excursion and wildlife strike. These risks were also identified by ICAO.
Source: The Himalayan Times
