Civil Aviation Workshop Starts Wednesday in Mobay

Jamaica will host the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAOs) three-day Seminar/Workshop on Meteorological Services for Air Navigation in the Americas, at the Iberostar Hotel in Montego Bay, St. James, November 25 to 27.
The Seminar is a joint effort of ICAO, the World Meteorological Organization and the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA). It is being held under the theme, “Development of a Quality Assurance System for the Enhancement of the Aeronautical Meteorology Service”.
It will involve over 30 meteorological aviation personnel from the English-speaking Caribbean and Haiti.
Speaking Tuesday at a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Think Tank, Jamaica’s representative to the Seminar/Workshop and Director of Air Navigation at the JCAA, Noel Ellis, underscored the timeliness of the initiative and its importance to flight safety.
“Over the years, meteorology has really developed around aviation, and it is necessary for pilots to be in constant awareness of prevailing weather conditions during flight. However, over the years this area of service has developed in a mostly ad hoc manner,” Mr. Ellis lamented.
The Workshop/Seminar will seek to establish standards for the delivery of these services, among other things, he stated.
“WMO and ICAO are seeking to bring quality management into aviation meteorology, by introducing standards that need to be maintained and audited, so that in years to come JCAA personnel from the Flight Safety and Regulations department will be required to have oversight responsibility for aviation meteorology, ” he explained.
“This seminar is introducing some of those quality mechanisms that will need to be checked going forward,” he added.
Topics to be covered over the three days will include an introduction to the Quality Management System (QMS) and a thorough examination of its history, principles and relationship to the Annex 3 QMS requirements of the ICAO.
The group will also examine in detail ICAO’s “Manual on the Quality Management System (QMS) for the Provision of Meteorological Service to International Air Navigation”, and will share local experiences in aviation meteorology.
Presenters will include representatives from ICAO’s headquarters in Canada, as well as officials of WMO. They will also focus on the ISO 9000 family of International Standards for quality management, which gives the requirements for a quality management system and provides a set of generic requirements relating to the processes of development and production, and how they will be managed, reviewed and improved to achieve customer satisfaction.
The official opening of the seminar/workshop will take place at the Iberostar Hotel on Wednesday (November 25) at 9:00 a.m. Guest Speaker will be Aviation Meteorology Specialist at ICAO’s Mexico Office, Enrique Camarillo.
Acting Director General of the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority, Lt. Col Oscar Derby, will also participate.