SAFETY hazards in Namibia’s civil aviation industry are multiplying by the day due to a lack of professional management by the Directorate for Civil Aviation (DCA), Informanté has established.

According to sources at the DCA, tasked with maintaining safety standards in the civil aviation industry, the directorate has failed to implement recommendations made by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in 2005.
“ICAO made recommendations after an audit of Namibia’s civil aviation industry in 2005, and nothing has been done to implement those recommendations,” said a senior DCA technician.
The sources said DCA was given a report with findings and recommendations made by ICAO, but nothing has been heard of this report. Like bats on a dark night, aircraft still navigate Namibia’s airspace without the aid of a radar system, and Air Traffic Controllers have to rely on information volunteered by aircraft.
This has resulted in some unscrupulous pilots behaving like “Windhoek taxis”, flying at dangerously low altitudes and jeopardising the lives of tourists who rely on charter planes as their primary mode of transport.
Namibia’s rate of air accidents reached an all time high this week after two Cessna aircrafts, V5AJJ and V5BIG crashed in Windhoek within 12 hours of each other. Nine planes have crashed in the past nine months. In addition to the nine crashed planes, there have been several unreported near mid-air collisions between airlines and private aircraft due to a lack of proper navigational systems. The unreported incidents that have been kept secret include a near collision between South African Airways and a Lear jet in Grootfontein, and another near collision between Air Namibia and a Cessna 210 that was flying from Eros to Tsumkwe.
Air Traffic Controllers have blamed the high rate of accidents on unreliable Spanish navigational equipment at the Air Traffic Control centres. The machines are said to be prone to intermittent power failures.
“The Spanish equipment was commissioned in July 2008 yet they are already giving us a lot of problems with breakdowns and power failures. The equipment was commissioned in July without our input,” one officer who cannot be named said.
“The ACC has to come and investigate the entire directorate and compile a report on its findings, and they should also push for the release of the ICAO report so that they can see how DCA has neglected safety standards,” he said.
 Director of Aircraft Accident Investigations in the Ministry of Works and transport Ericksson Nengola would not comment on the state of Namibia’s aviation industry.
 “Nobody wants to be in the shoes I am in now, even yourself,” he said.