CAAP fails int’l audit anew

MANILA, Philippines - The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has again failed to pass the audit of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) conducted from Feb. 18 to 22.

The ICAO team reportedly delivered the bad news yesterday during a post-audit exit briefing they gave top CAAP and Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) officials.

Sources told The STAR that the ICAO team informed the CAAP and DOTC officials that CAAP only passed one out of five major issues they looked into.

“It was embarrassing,” the source said.

The CAAP had asked for the ICAO audit as it again attempted to finally remove safety concerns raised by the United Nations aviation sector regulatory body way back in 2009.

If the CAAP passes the review, it can focus on its job of regaining Category I rating with the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), which had downgraded the Philippines to Category II in late 2007.

Just four months ago, the CAAP failed an audit conducted by the ICAO, which sent a Coordinated Validated Mission (CVM) team to undertake a 10-day review.

After a 10-day evaluation by the CVM team, the CAAP failed in “aircraft registration and flight safety inspection.”

The CVM team was headed by team leader Henry Gourdji and composed of Jean Claude Waffo and Sekhat Natarjan Chandr, tasked with evaluating aerodrome ground airfield facilities; Allan Tang, licensing; Vincent Lambottea, operations; and Amal Hewawasam and Kong Cheong, airworthiness.

When the US FAA downgraded the Philippines from Category 1 to Category II in December 2007, it cited significant safety, oversight and management shortcomings, which meant that Philippine carriers could not get more flights to the US.

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