Sale of aircraft in jeopardy
Date: 17 March 2009
The following is a rough translation of an Afrikaans article that appeared in the Volksblad newspaper:
By Erika Gibson
The sale of approximately 10 airforce aircraft may be in jeopardy after the service records were burnt over three years ago.
The Cessna 185 aircraft were used for training at Waterkloof airforce base until November 2006 when they were withdrawn from use.
They can now only be sold as scrap metal, while it is a sought after aircraft the private sector.
According to information obtained by Volksblad, the value of each aircraft, depending on total flight hours, is between R1m and R2m.
Unless the records are fully reconstructed, the Civil Aviation Authority will only them to be registered in the restricted category. Most private owners will want to use the aircraft for commercial hire.
Foreign purchasers have long wanted to get hold of the aircraft because of the weakness of the Rand, but they cannot purchase the aircraft without the records.
There have already been proposals to form syndicates to purchase all the aircraft, but that was before they had knowledge that the documents had been lost.
No answers were provided by the airforce when questioned by prospective purchasers.
The Ministry of Defence must also approve the sale documentation before Armscor can dispose of the aircraft.
The airforce has still not answered written queries from the Volksblad, more than a month after requesting details of the current situation.
As far as can be ascertained, a fire broke out three years ago in the C-185 system managers' office at AFB Waterkloof. The cause was an electrical fault.
Many documents and computers were lost in the resulting fire. The records and building remain in the dump.
A Board of Enquiry was held after the event, but the airforce has not released the findings.
According to informers, a master copy of all flight records must be kept at a central repository, normally in a safe.
The squadron that flies the aircraft keep a copy. If a record is lost for one or other reason, then it can be reconstructed via descriptions and dates of inspections by the technical section that inspected the aircraft.
One is question is have the master copies of the records been protected according to the regulations. Another question is if any attempts have been made to reconstruct the records.
