Manila ready for ICAO Audit

Pass ICAO, FAA follows with Cat 1 

October 2, 2012

William K. Hotchkiss III, Director-General of Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will send safety oversight audit team this month to conduct fresh audit of the Philippine Civil Aviation to find out whether the country has made substantial progress in addressing the Significant Safety Concerns (SSC) it issued on the Philippines on October 19, 2009 under the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme.

“ICAO notified us that they will be sending an audit team towards the end of October,” says William K. Hotchkiss III, Director-General of Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP).

Hotchkiss said that they already addressed most of the major concerns that were brought to the attention of the government, and upon instructions of President Aquino and Secretary Mar Roxas they already prioritized ICAO compliance.

“ICAO’s SSC is priority. We need to get first the ICAO certification because we are a signatory to it. After that we'll address the FAA matter,” he said.

 “If we can address ICAO, we have no problems with FAA" Hotchkiss adds.

CAAP already informed the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the Philippine Governments change in priority plans last July.

ICAO found 88 safety violations affecting 278 out of 987 Convention Protocols, indicating a 28% 'lack of effective implementation' of aviation safety policies which it classified as Significant Safety Concern (SSC) the Philippines need to address immediately.

Hotchkiss noted that ICAO and FAA concerns are essentially similar and they are being addressed with the help of ICAO advisers who are in Manila.

ICAO has send to the Philippines Compliance Personnel to help and oversee the country's implementation of SSC's. Two concerns remained pending, and that is lack of qualified training personnel which CAAP is addressing, and of a standardized curriculum for the training of inspectors, which incidentally are also the remaining concerns of FAA after their review conducted in January this year.