Multiple Non-conformances have been raised against Azman Air after Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) carried out a safety audit focussing on the airline operations, airworthiness, training, licensing, financial health and other areas, deemed necessary.
Earlier, Nigeria Civil aviation authority (NCAA) had suspended the operations of Azman Air on 16th march citing various Non-conformance, to which Azman air was critical about NCAA.
A 19 page audited report signed by Director General, NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu dated 2nd April, 2021, listed various areas, Azman airline failed to comply. The highlights of the report read as below.
The report says, Azman air failed to comply staffing requirements of Management personnel , Safety Management Department and Quality Management Department in compliance with the provisions of Nig.CARs 9.2.2.2 (a) and (e) (2) , CARs 9.2.2.3 and 9.2.2.10, respectively.
"The Accountable Manager exhibited a lack of understanding of his duties and responsibilities as contained in the Operations Manuals.
"This is further evidenced by lack of evidence of the Accountable Manager's involvement in Management Reviews of Quality Audit Findings.
Report says, Director of Flight Operations (DFO) did not discharge the duties to maintain safe commercial flight operations and he lacked the understanding of his duties and responsibilities as contained in the Operations Manuals. Also, he did not ensure appropriate number of safety officers in the flight operations department.
"This is evidenced by the fact that FDR analysis on the B737 (eg 5N-SYS) revealed a number of exceedance,s and the DFO could not show any evidence of actions taken to check the trend.
"Evidence of poor safety culture promoted by absence of evidence of concrete action on clear safety violations by flight crew, eg, failure to make required entries in the technical log".
The Chief Pilot of Azman air did not discharge the duties in compliance with Nig.CARs 9.2.2.2 (e) (2) and (3)(i) that is required to maintain safe commercial flight operations.
"This is evidenced by the fact that the Chief Pilot did not know that some of his pilots were overdue for SMS, CRM training, etc, and were not making technical log entries and signing voyage reports as required by Nig.CARs 8.5.1.19."
The temporary Director of Maintenance (DOM) of Azman air failed to discharge his duties in compliance with Nig.CARs 9.2.2.2 (e) (2) and lacked knowledge of Nig.CARs and approved Maintenance Control Manual procedures.
"The DOM also failed to ensure that approved Maintenance Control Manual Procedures are effectively implemented which led to numerous safety critical non-conformities including lack of access to maintenance data by the engineers in Abuja; lack of effective tool control (eg use of bogus pressure gauge with incorrect calibration certificate in Abuja)".
"Also ineffective monitoring of tyre wear; overdue engineers training in Human Factors; outdated B737 Approved Maintenance Programme; duty time limitation exceedance; ineffective monitoring of maintenance by the DOM as he is located in Kano instead of the approved maintenance base in Lagos."
"This is evidenced by Azman's inability to provide a current copy of the Company's Emergency Response Plan ( this is a repeat finding ) as required by Nig.CAR 9.3.1.2(g)(7)."
Azman air failed to comply with the requirements of Nig.CARs 9.2.2.10 and 20.3.1.1, pertaining to the establishment of Safety Management System .
This is evidenced by lack of a Safety Manager or Safety Officers to run the Safety Management System. Lack of this has also resulted in poor management of Flight Data Monitoring Reports for safety improvements."
Azman Air could not comply with the requirements of Nig.CARs 18.10.3 that has guidelines of the submission of monthly financial health reports to the NCAA.
"This is evidenced in Azman Air's failure to meet up with the monthly obligation in submitting the required financial health report for months despite several reminders.
"Last submission was in July, 2020. During this audit, Azman submitted reports for December ,2020 and January 2021."
