Lufthansa Technik loses licence
Yesterday’s suspension of the approval for Lufthansa Technik Maintenance International to operate as a maintenance organisation lists similar reasons cited by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Comair’s grounding last week.
Lufthansa Technik Maintenance International (LTMI) maintained part of Comair’s fleet until yesterday. It is a subsidiary of Lufthansa Technik and operates its business for customers outside Germany.
The regulator said: “During the safety oversight visit LTMI’s quality control management system and safety management systems were subjected to a review to establish legislative compliance.”
Last week, kulula.com and British Airways were grounded for five days.
The CAA said: “The CAA found the AMO had both a quality management system and safety management system in place. However, both were not implemented as per the CARs and the requisite manuals.”
Comair flights experienced several safety-related incidents prior to its grounding and last Sunday, after resuming operations, a BA flight experienced landing gear challenges on final approach to Gqeberha.
LTMI was given until last night to rectify several findings made by the regulator prior to its suspension.
Comair chief executive Glen Orsmond anticipated this earlier this week when the group announced its pre-emptive move to SAA Technical as sole maintenance provider on Tuesday.
“Our priority at the moment is to restore a full, reliable flight schedule for our customers to ensure they can book and fly with confidence, which is why we acted as soon as we were informed the suspension was a possibility,” he said.
Linden Birns, co-founder of BHK Crisis Communications and an aviation expert said: “The Comair and LTMI saga is cryptic and opaque communication raises the question of whether the CAA is acting whimsically and inconsistently.
“It’s important to understand what the CAA’s concerns are, but levels of communication have done nothing to restore trust in the regulator which has its own reputation challenges.”