BRADES – His Excellency the Governor Adrian Davis on Tuesday, May 12, 2015 negated reports that his office and the Civil Aviation Authority were suppressing reports on the crash involving Fly Montserrat on October 9, 2012 in which three people were killed.
He was referencing an article on mnialive.com of May 6 called Senseless Plane Crash, which the Governor says “creates a false impression of aviation safety and contains a number of factual errors.”
“It is quite wrong to suggest that the Governor suppresses information. Everyone involved in the safety of aviation from the Governor and Civil Aviation Authority to the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) and Air Safety Support International (ASSI) are committed to ensuring the highest levels of aviation safety which includes a culture that encourages the reporting and discussion of incidents,” the statement read.
“Indeed, rather than suppressing information, the two bulletins from the AAIB on the accident in question have been publicly available on its website at www.gov.uk/aaib-reports since they were completed. Under international agreements, the authorities in Antigua are responsible for investigation of the accident to VP-MON and publishing the accident report. The Governor of Montserrat has no influence over the content or timing of the report. However, as the UK accredited representative, the AAIB will continue to press for publication of the VP-MON final accident report.
“The article also wrongly claims that there were ‘dozens of Mandatory Occurrence Reports filed by Air Traffic Controllers’ and that ‘the vast majority of these MOR detailed VP-MON and multiple engine failures while starting’. In fact over the three years before the accident only two reports were made that related to engine problems on Fly Montserrat aircraft. Like all such reports these were studied by safety experts and any necessary follow up action taken.
“As the aviation regulator, ASSI is committed to ensuring the highest possible levels of safety on behalf of the Governor and the Government and people of Montserrat. In undertaking this role it will continue to carry out regular visits to Montserrat as part of its continuing oversight of Fly Montserrat,” the release ends.
