THE USA IS worried that Russia, which barely met accepted International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) air-safety oversight standards in 1994, is failing to take action to improve its performance.
In October 1994, a US Federal Aviation Administration safety-oversight evaluation, carried out with Russian authorities under the FAA's International Aviation Safety Assessment Programme (IASAP), concluded that swift action was needed for Russia to achieve ICAO minimum safety standards.
According to just-retired FAA associate administrator Anthony Broderick, "-progress was made initially, but in the last six to nine months, the USA has expressed some concern about the pace at which progress is being made because of the governmental changes which prevent resources being applied to the programme."
The US safety-evaluation team has recommended better pay, equipment and training for aviation-safety inspectors. It reports that, in certain air-traffic areas, controllers receive inadequate English-language training and that there is a shortage of funding.
The FAA has audited Kuwait under the IASAP and judged its aviation safety-standards oversight to be poor. Limited operations only to the USA by Kuwaiti carriers are permitted. Poland and Aruba have had "conditional" ratings retracted.
Source: Flight International