Bangladesh’s aviation regulator is now working to comply with the requirements of United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that will allow the country to resume its Dhaka-New York flights.
Recently, Bangladesh has cleared its name off the list of countries with unsafe civil aviation system.
The FAA had earlier raised objections in 61 areas in Bangladesh’s civil aviation system. However, the country has so far addressed 45 such areas of concern.
When all these issues will be addressed, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) will graduate to Category 1 from Category 2 rating of the FAA.
The Category 1 rating will enable the CAAB to choose and change air routes.
“We have been working hard to meet the FAA standards and make the CAAB a modern organisation, which will meet safety and security standards of any international regulatory body,” said Wing Commander SM Nazmul Anam, director for flight safety and regulations of the CAAB.
The Bangladesh’s aviation regulator will have to reshape and modernise its rules and regulations to comply with the standards of the FAA.
Bangladesh will also bring necessary changes to laws to make the regulator a real autonomous body.
The CAAB will also reshape its organogram and recruit qualified people, redesign their salary structures, and improve documentation.
“Now we are working on the areas that are essential for ensuring all sorts of safety criteria and that have been neglected for years. We have already completed our tasks in 45 areas identified by the FAA,” Anam said.
“We have acknowledged our shortcomings and are trying to overcome those. We have sent some of our proposals to relevant ministries for approval,” he added.
The CAAB sent proposals of revising its organogram to the civil aviation ministry, and suggestions to amend the regulations of the aviation authority to the law ministry, said Anam.
The CAAB also needs to develop appropriate air navigation order for air operation certificate and ensure airworthiness and continuous surveillance of air carriers.
The regulator also started the reconstruction of an asphalt concrete runway overlay at Shahjalal International Airport on June 3 after a six-year delay.
With this, the 10,500-foot lone runway of the airport is likely to get enough physical strength to handle heavyweight and wide-body aircraft.
Also, it has upgraded instrumental landing system, aviation weather observation system and set up runway visual range machine to ensure safety at the airport, added Anam.
The FAA, the most influential aviation agency in the world, placed the CAAB in Category 2 after finding irregularities in its operational activities in an investigation in December 1997.
At that time, Bangladesh failed to meet the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) minimum safety standards.
According to the FAA findings, the CAAB also lacked technically qualified personnel and surveillance efforts.
In 2006, the FAA conducted an audit and again placed the CAAB in category 2 as the Bangladeshi regulator could not meet the ICAO’s minimum safety standards.
But now that Bangladesh has cleared its name off the ICAO’s list of countries having significant safety concerns, the regulator sees it as a step forward to graduating to the category 1 status.
The CAAB has set a target of one year to work and reshape the organisation, said Anam.
“Then we will invite the IASA (International Aviation Safety Assessment) team to assess our progress, and hope to upgrade to category 1.”
Also, the aviation regulator plans to bring in some international experts to give the CAAB team a boost in knowledge and technical know-how.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
