CAAN Reveals Five Year Aviation Safety Plan. The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has revealed its five-year plan titled ‘Nepal Aviation Safety Plan (NASP)’. The safety plan is for improvement of safety oversight capabilities by strengthening weak elements.
The five-year plan, Nepal Aviation Safety Plan (2018 to 2022) has been developed as per the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)’s global safety plan. According to the spokesperson for CAAN, Birendra Shrestha, the plan includes three goals: continuous reduction of operational safety risks, strengthening safety oversight capabilities, and implementing harmonized safety strategy. The plan is useful for strengthening weak elements like lack of qualified technical personnel and resolution of safety issues.
The safety plan aims to improve in the areas of the organization (ORG), aircraft accident and incident investigation (AIG) and air navigation services (ANS), which have been identified as safety deficient areas. The plan includes accelerating the process of implementing the state safety programme (SSP). CAAN has recognized NASP as important for safety risk analysis for identification of hazards and mitigation of operational safety risks.
Moreover, the plan has identified the need to address five safety deficiencies – to develop comprehensive regulatory oversight framework, establishment of an independent accident and incident investigation authority (IAIIA), qualified technical personnel to support effective safety oversight, strategic collaboration with key aviation stakeholders to enhance safety in a coordinated manner, and continued implementation of compliance with ICAO framework.
Fthe or establishment of IAIIA, it plans to develop an effective system to promulgate technical guidance and tools to provide critical information needed for technical personnel by 2020. Likewise, it plans to establish an effective system to attract, recruit, train and retain qualified and sufficient technical personnel to support regulatory oversight by 2019 and establish technical personnel to support accident and incident investigation by 2019.
The Nepal Aviation Safety Plan has identified six operational risks, which include controlled flight into terrain, loss of control in flight, mid-air collision, runway incursion, and runway excursion and wildlife strike. These risks were also identified by ICAO.
Reference: The Himalayan Times