JCAA to Host Airworthiness Seminar

As a part of its mandate to ensure the safe and orderly development of civil aviation in the country, the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA) will be hosting an Airworthiness Seminar on Thursday, October 25.

Speaking with JIS News, JCAA Director General, Nari Williams-Singh, explained that the Authority’s Flight Safety Division will be using the event to address issues that the regulatory body has identified through its surveillance and oversight activities.

“We provide some support and guidance to the general aviation community, being the small air operators in the community, and this will be the first of many workshops and seminars that are to come,” he said.

“This one, in particular, has to do with the management of aircraft records, which is an important component of aircraft maintenance requirements. The records need to be accurate and maintained in a particular way,” he added.

Mr. Williams-Singh said the seminar will be comprehensive and would be one way of providing a forum for JCAA Flight Safety Inspectors to interface with industry stakeholders.

For his part, Manager for Airworthiness Oversight in the JCAA’s Flight Safety Division, Gary Carr, said the event is a training workshop targeting management-level staff as well as persons tasked with the safe and legal release of aircraft to service.

“The topics are targeted at personnel in records management and those who are certified to deal with procedures. It is as detailed as how to do it, when to do it, where it should be recorded; the material that is needed in terms of ink to keep it, because they need to preserve the records,” he explained.

Mr. Carr pointed out that there may be need to refer to the records for at least two years or longer after the aircraft has been removed from service and that the operators will be trained in long-term preservation of their documents.

According to the Manager, aviation is a highly regulated field and all requirements must be adhered to. “Our regulations are developed from international standards. So you’ll find that they are similar or almost identical to what exists in other countries,” he explained.

Additionally, he said it is the Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) that are contained in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) annexes that are used the develop the Civil Aviation Act and Regulations, and that Annex Six refers to the airworthiness of aircraft. It covers airworthiness requirements, one of which is the management of the aircraft records.

Mr. Carr said the sessions will be interactive, and participants are encouraged to ask questions and bring up any challenges or issues and make recommendations.