LEONARD NEILL OLD MODEL Russian airfreighters have been blamed for Africa’s high accident rate in 2005 - 37% of all airline accidents for the year. Of the world’s 35 recorded aircraft accidents last year 13% of them happened in Africa and 10 of these were caused by ‘old and badly maintained Antonovs and Ilyushins’ according to the latest AirlinerAccident Statistics Report of the Aviation Safety Network. Africa’s high volume of accidents was also recorded on a continent which has only 3% of the world’s departures, says the report. Several central African airlines do not ‘always maintain and operate them according to international standards, even though some African countries have clamped down on unsafe airlines’. SA has not banned specific airlines from flying in, but has refused entry to individual aircraft deemed unsafe, says Civil Aviation Authority commissioner Siboseso Mavhobane. The operational and maintenance histories of most aircraft are available, he says, but must be scrutinised by CAA before obtaining a permit to land from the Department of Trade and Industry.
