DoT urged to prohibit operation of non-airworthy Antonovs
LEONARD NEILL
TWO RUSSIAN freighters that fly in and out of South Africa on a regular basis have failed to obtain authorisation certificates from their manufacturers and are not airworthy.
This is revealed in a letter by the Russian Antonov Design Bureau calling on the South African Department of Transport to prohibit the operation of the two aircraft. They are currently flying in and out of South Africa mainly to various African destinations. One of them has not been re-licensed for three years.
Both have exceeded their authorised service life and neither is airworthy, says the Design Bureau’s Anatolly Klimov in the letter written on February 5, a copy of which has been handed to FTW.
The letter states that no response had been received from the Department to a previous letter dated July 21, 2003 dealing with the same subject. One of the aircraft should have been grounded as long ago as March 2001, the other in May 2002. Both are said to be registered to a South African company, named in the letter, which is at present operating flights in and out of South Africa.
The letter gives the registration numbers of the two aircraft, one of which is known to have been grounded at Johannesburg International Airport (JIA) last month after it had previously landed there, flown on to Lanseria to load a cargo consignment for Angola and then, once it had completed its mission, returned to JIA.
“Antonov Design Bureau as a designer of Antonov type aircraft did not perform works (maintenance) and did not issue the authorisation on extension of service time and service life of the aircraft,” says the letter.
“Operation of the aircraft, which are not airworthy, is inadmissible.”
