South African Airways (SAA) has suspended flights to Chileka Airport due serious safety risks at the airport.
This follows non-compliance findings made by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) after its annual inspection at the Malawian airport.
SACAA spokesperson Pappie Maja inspection had exposed several issues of non-compliances, some of which were cause for serious concern.
The issues include the airport’s perimeter fence which was vandalised and fell short of set international standards. SCAA also established that Chileka has no dependable fire engine and ambulance due to a lack of maintenance.
“This state of affairs may have catastrophic consequences for the airline’s passengers and crew in an event that one of their aircraft or surrounding facilities caught fire because as things stand, that would mean that emergency support services would not be instantly available as prescribed by civil aviation regulations worldwide,” read SACAA’s statement.
According to Maja, all SAA operations at Chileka airport will remain suspended until the airport addresses the issues.
“The airline accepted our findings and agreed that it was in the interest of safety to stop operations there,” Maja explained.
It is simply very embarrassing,how can someone from far tells you how bad is your premises or house but you don’t see it yourself? It means the management at the airport are not doing their job and must be removed because they are not serious about the job.very embarrassing indeed.
Close the dem airport and fix everything that is not complying and never try to be idiots.