The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) urged Ministers attending the African Ministerial Meeting on

Aviation Safety held in Abuja, Nigeria to endorse and adopt the Africa Strategic Improvement

Action Plan. The plan will enhance safety by addressing deficiencies and strengthening regulatory oversight in the region progressively to 2015.

The Africa Strategic Improvement Action Plan calls for the:

•  Establishment of independent and sufficiently funded civil aviation authorities.
• Implementation of effective and transparent safety oversight systems by all African States.
• Completion of an IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) by all African carriers.
• Implementation of accident prevention measures focused on runway safety and loss of control.
• Implementation of Flight Data Analysis (FDA).
• Implementation of Safety Management Systems (SMS) by all service providers.

Several ongoing IATA and ICAO initiatives and programmes contribute towards the Africa Strategic Improvement Action Plan:

1. ICAO has placed specific emphasis on urgently addressing all identified SSCs by 2013 and

adopting and implementing an effective safety oversight system. ICAO is working with African

States whose audit results under the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP)

require improvement.

2. IATA, ICAO and other international organizations have developed a Runway Safety Programme with a series of workshops held worldwide. Toolkit is available on both the IATA and ICAO websites, free of charge.

3. The IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA), includes standards that provide a baseline SMS assessment. “Global standards such as IOSA are a proven way to improve aviation safety. In 2011, Africa-based operators on the IOSA registry had an accident rate of 1.84 per million flights, which is close to the world IOSA average of 1.73. By comparison non-IOSA operators in Africa had an accident rate of 9.31,” However, no IOSA registered carriers based in Africa have been involved in accidents in 2012 at the time of this report, confirming the efficiency of complying with the audit’s 900 + standards.

4. The use of Flight Data Analysis is another key tool to improve safety. The IATA Implementation Program for Safe Operations in Africa (IPSOA) ensured that flight data analysis tools are available to all IATA carriers in Africa. “Participating carriers have seen a 56% reduction in deviations from optimum flight trajectories and the top five airports with unstable approach.

Pinpoint Aviation Solutions appoints Elizabeth Greig to the role of Quality Manager.

"Elizabeth brings a wealth of experience in Auditing and Quality Management, her appointment to the QM position is critical to the organisations overall development and significantly enhances the capability of Pinpoint Aviation Solutions in improving aviation safety for our client companies", said CEO Captain Bill Fry.

See crew pages for Elizabeth's biography.