Jenifer James
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The Chairperson of the Board of Directors of South Supreme Airline, Ayii Duang Ayii, defended the carrier after it came under criticism by the national minister of transport, Madut Biar, last week.
Ayii, who addressed the press yesterday, called on the Ministry of Transport to withdraw the statement that the Supreme Airline is operating illegally in the country.
He argued that the management of the South Supreme Airline welcomes the directive of the council of ministers for the inspections of the aircraft that are operating in South Sudan to meet the standard of airworthiness.
“We condemn the act of accusing the company of operating illegally in the country; the minister needs to withdraw the statement,” Ayii said.
“Is it because of the air crash of Supreme Airlines, which happens recurrently, that the minister is saying that the plane is operating illegally?” he posed.
“How many plane crashes do we have in South Sudan, and who regulates those companies to operate if not the ministry of transport?” Ayii said.
Ayii said the airline started its operation in 2006 under the name of Fide Airline, and it would not have been possible for the company to operate all these years without legal documents and an insurance band licence.
Ayii said since the plane crash, the company had paid some money to the ministry of transport to take the black box to the company that manufactures the plane in order for the management of Supreme Airlines to know the cause of the crash.
He added that, until now, there has been no clear outcome from the ministry of transport regarding the result of the black box.
Last week, Mr. Biar presented a report on the aircraft that do not meet the airworthiness requirements and conducted checks on the planes plying various routes in South Sudan’s airspace. The intention is to weed out suspected unsafe aircraft.
Makuei said the cabinet observed that most of the planes operating in South Sudan are outdated and lack the requisite safety features that would make them airworthy.
“What we do here is just check the documentation of those aircraft to see if it is valid. There is nothing that we can do [if we find faults] because we are not authorised to make any registrations according to international civil aviation.
On June 1, 2023, the Director of Juba International Airport, Kur Kuol, lamented that engineers charged with routine maintenance of the aircraft serving local flights have failed to meet the international requirements for servicing.
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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