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On the 28th of June 2018, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority @CAA_Kenya quietly sent a letter to the Cabinet secretary in charge of interior, Dr @FredMatiangi .
On the 28th of June 2018, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority @CAA_Kenya quietly sent a letter to the Cabinet secretary in charge of interior, Dr @FredMatiangi .
In this letter, KCAA notified the NPS Air Wing through the CS that it was de registering Mi 17 helicopter type from the Kenyan Civil Aircraft Registry.
The reason given was that in order to conform to conform to an impending ICAO safety audit, they have to delete the Mi from the register as they were not accepted into the register under the procedures of the Russian Airworthiness Code.
The @NPSOfficial_KE operates 4 Mi 17B helicopters. Registrations 5Y EDM (c/n 404M01), 5Y STA (c/n 404M03), 5Y SFA (404M04) and 5Y DCI (c/n 404M05)
This particular helicopter is valuable to the @NPSOfficial_KE as it has a capacity to carry 30 to 36 troops over 1000 Km away, an ability to haul upto 5 tonnes of supplies and an impressive endurance and speed that puts all of Kenya within NPS reach.
These charecteristics have been well exploited before to transport troop reinforcements to borders, quick response units to hotspots, relief and examination materials to isolated and marooned areas etc.
By deregistering the Mi 17, @CAA_Kenya has effectively killed the morale of pilots flying these aircraft. This because effective 28th june, any hours flown by the pilot on the type will not be counted as part of his experience!
In simple language, if an Mi 17 is deployed to support operations in Boni or Wajir (as they regularly are) and the helicopter flies for 20 hours during the deployment period, none of this can be claimed by the crew as flying experience. It is career stagnation!
@CAA_Kenya has to be asked, how did they allow @NPSOfficial_KE to enter the Mi 17 into its registry & fly it since 2003? When they discovered the safety gaps, what measures did they take to remedy it? What becomes of the hours logged by Mi pilots since 28th June?
must become user friendly to aviation professionals. For example, the Kenyan Civil Aircraft Registry is not accesible via its website. Air Crash Reports are never even published for public consumption! Each officer has their own interpretation of aviation rules & regs.
On behalf of all those suffering in silence because of @CAA_Kenya 's opaqueness, I urge the @TransportKE CS @JamesMacharia_ to focus keenly on KCAA vis a vis stakeholder concerns and develop a new way of doing business at the organisation.
