Minister for Transport & Civil Aviation, Walter Schnaubelt presented the annual Reports of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority for the year 2020 and 2021 this week.
He said CASA PNG has again met the expectations of the government, the aviation industry and the public in ensuring that safety and security is maintained and enhanced within an increasingly complex and challenging environment.
Minister Schnaubelt said, “It is important that we have an effective and efficient and efficient aviation safety and security regulator because a safe aviation environment contributes towards social and economic development of Papua New Guinea and raises PNG’s profile at the international level.”
Schnaubelt further stated that the rapid growth of the remotely piloted aircraft system and drones industry has resulted in significant and multiple challenges for PNG. He said to deliver their mandate and meet the needs and expectation of the industry, CASA has identified key areas of concern and has reviewed and developed its operating rules that are being implemented.
“CASA is continuing in its effort to address remotely piloted aircraft system oversight and surveillance including capacity building of its inspectors and is improving PNG’s RPS regulations to ensure alignment with ICAO standards and recommendations are adhered to,” said the Minister.
He said CASA PNG uses these annual reports to conduct trend analysis to build a picture of how prevalent certain types of incidents are in different types of aviation operations.
“From a safety perspective, significant changes increase the risk and CASA was able to mitigate these risks through regulatory interventions, increase surveillance and imposition of conditions and implementations of a risk base approach in auditing.”
These reports help CASA PNG to design policies, propose new safety standards and oversights strategies to improve aviation safety and security.