The SA Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) has appointed 83 new doctors to conduct new tests for dozens of aviation employers who were allegedly issued with fraudulent certificates by aviation doctor Nonhlanhla Sishaba, SAA’s chief medical officer.
Sishaba allegedly failed to submit crucial test results to the SACAA in support of the medical certificates she issued – and then continued to grant medical certificates after her authority to do so was revoked, reports BusinesLIVE. When she did eventually provide the SACAA with the outstanding test results, these apparently contained so many anomalies the authority launched an investigation, said its spokesperson, Phindiwe Gwebu.
“Our contention is she cleared people who didn’t qualify to be cleared. In one example, the ECG test results revealed a severe heart problem, but a medical certificate was issued,” she said. “Not all the certificates were necessarily wrong. But there were enough discrepancies to interrogate all of them.”
The SACAA has authorised 83 doctors to conduct the health assessments required to issue medical certificates for pilots, flight engineers, cabin crew and air traffic controllers.
Pilots from many other African states obtain their licences in SA, supported by locally awarded medical certificates, said Gwebu.
The SACAA’s ongoing investigation has so far identified 103 people whose certificates are under question. It is not clear at this stage if any of them are aware they received bogus documents.
Those who were provided with certificates accompanied by anomalous test results have been informed and given two weeks to present themselves to another SACAA-approved doctor for a new medical examination, said Gwebu. Anyone with a medical certificate issued by Sishaba after 31 March also has to submit to a fresh medical examination.
“We are dealing with matters of life and death. It is important to stop the rot,” she said.
SA’s aviation industry had an exemplary safety record, with no fatal accidents in the scheduled airline sector in nearly 40 years, said SACAA director of civil aviation Poppy Khoza.
Attempts to reach Sishaba were unsuccessful.
She has been placed on precautionary suspension, pending the outcome of investigations by the airline and the SACAA.
SAA said there had been no effect on its operations, and that “after a thorough assessment of personnel who were examined and issued with medical fitness certificates” by Sishaba, “only two cabin crew members and one pilot have been negatively affected”.
“They will be medically re-certified by the end of September, as directed by both SAA internal processes and the civil aviation authority,” it said in a statement.
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