The head of the CAA allegedly contravened the Civil Aviation Act by not reporting an aircraft incident
Sechaba ka’Nkosi
Beleaguered Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) boss Trevor Abrahams, who was arrested this week in connection with the fraudulent issuing of pilot licences, allegedly sought to cover up a crash involving an airplane he was flying.
Documents in possession of the Mail & Guardian show that Abrahams failed to report an incident in which an aircraft he was flying skidded off a runaway at Rand airport in July last year.
It is understood that Abrahams left the plane at the scene without reporting the incident to responsible authorities, despite the fact that the aircraft had been damaged when two tyres burst during the incident. Such a cover-up would constitute a serious breach of the Civil Aviation Act, as the law stipulates all accidents must be reported immediately.
This week Abrahams was arrested in a swoop pulled off by the Pretoria commercial crime unit. Abrahams – and four others, including South African Airways (SAA) pilots who were implicated in a false licence scam – were charged with fraud, corruption, obstruction of justice and the contravention of the Civil Aviation Act.
Airport manager Reggie Barnes eventually reported the air crash incident, which took place on the evening of July 16 1999, the following day.
Abrahams broached the matter only after the Air Line Pilots’ Association of South Africa (Alpa-SA) wrote to the CAA in January demanding an inquiry into the matter.
But what was meant to be an investigation became watered down when Abrahams dispatched two of his lieutenants to meet with Alpa-SA – resulting in the clearance of all the allegations against him.
A vague, one-page statement signed jointly by Alpa-SA and CAA said of the incident: “Following an open and forthright discussion during a meeting on March 30 2000, we believe the CAA and Alpa-SA representatives present now have a clear understanding of the circumstances surrounding the CEO [Abrahams] of the CAA’s incident. The communication content and procedures employed were in accordance with CAA standards.”
However, what the “investigation” failed to divulge was that Abrahams, as a pilot of the flight, was supposed to have reported the incident as soon as possible to pave the way for a possible investigation in accordance with the country’s civil regulations.
The Civil Aviation Act mentions overrunning and running off the side of runways as serious incidents that warrant serious investigation.
“The pilot-in-command, and any other flight crew member, operator or owner, as the case may be, of an aircraft involved in an incident, other than an air traffic service incident, within the republic, shall, as soon as possible, notify the commissioner or an air traffic service unit of such incident,” stipulates the law on notification of incidents.
All Alpa-SA members approached for comment refused to disclose their names, citing a CAA employee who was hauled before a hastily convened disciplinary hearing and found guilty for revealing details on Abrahams’s licence to a police officer.
It is understood that Abrahams possesses only a private pilot licence with a night rating that allows him to fly in visual meteorological conditions at any time of the day. But he flew the plane from Virginia in Durban to the Rand airport at night using flight instruments that required a more advanced rating.
At the time of the M&G investigation the CAA failed to provide reasons for discrepancies in their investigation.
This week the CAA failed again to return M&G calls seeking clarification.
An Alpa-SA member, however, said: “We were denied an opportunity to investigate the truth of the allegations or otherwise. We only had to listen to Abrahams’s version of the incident and accept it.
“In the interest of accident prevention, all we wanted was the matter to be investigated thoroughly. But that was not the case.”
Last month the M&G reported on controversies surrounding Abrahams’s own licence.
Abrahams and CAA legal manager Khalatse Marobela threated to sue the newspaper on “substantive discrepancies and misrepresentation of information” in the article.
Abrahams is not new to cover-ups. In May he allegedly failed to act on a licence fraud scam in which examination papers were provided in advance to applicants. Instead Abrahams appointed an internal inquiry headed by Marobela to investigate the scam.
Marobela found only one pilot, Jan Dirk Heyns, who was killed with nine other passengers in an East Rand plane crash in December, had acquired his pilot licence fraudulently.
Not even Louis Maloma, the former SA Airlink pilot who blew the whistle on the licence fraud scam in March, was found to have committed any offence.
Moloma was arrested this week with Abrahams and four senior SAA pilots. More arrests are pending.
Abrahams and Marobela failed to inform their superiors in the Department of Transport about an independent report given to them in May, recommending a broad investigation into the issue and that the results be handed over to the police for possible investigation.
Abrahams was suspended from his position with immediate effect this week.
Minister of Transport Abdullah Omar said the authority had a responsibility to ensure public safety and security within the industry.
“The CAA cannot afford to speculate on matters [that] have far-reaching global and local implications on public safety,” said Omar.
“I am a firm believer in the rule of law and believe the law must take its course.”