Aviation officials to set up regional air safety system

Aviation authorities across the region are working towards establishing a Caribbean Air Safety Oversight System (CASOS), which they hope to take to regional heads for approval.

Head of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority Zulficar Mohammed in a recent interview with Stabroek News said the aim of this establishment was to facilitate more sharing of resources in the Caribbean and it could evolve into a Regional Civil Aviation Authority. According to Mohammed, the regional aviation bodies are looking at ways in which they could assist each other with human and technical resources.

However, Mohammed said this would mean that Caribbean nations would have to work towards harmonising regulations so that when they share personnel, for instance engineers, they could move from one country to another and operate freely and safely knowing that what obtains in one country also obtains in another. Down the line too, he said, CASOS could also represent the region at the level of the International Civil Aviation Authority.

“It could eventually evolve into a regional entity rather than individual state authorities,” he said.