KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 2 — The Transport Ministry, through the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM), has taken corrective action against 33 audit findings of the International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) raised by the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2019.
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong said this followed the downgrading of CAAM’s safety rating from Category 1 to Category 2 by the FAA.
He said the FAA had re-audited CAAM from Dec 6 to 10, 2021 and a written report of the audit findings was submitted to Malaysia last May 10 for corrective action.
“Based on the report, CAAM has taken action to close the 29 findings of the IASA audit raised by the FAA, and then on July 12 to 14, 2022, the FAA held further discussions with CAAM regarding corrective actions taken by CAAM on those findings,” he said during the Minister’s Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He was responding to a from Abdul Latiff Abdul Rahman (PAS-Kuala Krai) on the status and actions taken by the ministry following the downgrading of the safety rating of the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) from Category 1 to Category 2 by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in November 2019.
Wee said based on the discussion, the FAA informed verbally that all 26 of the 29 findings obtained in the auditing session in December last year had been successfully closed, with all 26 of the findings related to the technical aspects of CAAM.
However, he said three findings are still not closed, with two of them related to legal aspect and the other concerned technical and training aspect involving the preparation of syllabus for CAAM inspectors.
“In this connection, corrective actions to cover the three findings were submitted to the FAA on July 25, 2022, and the FAA will make a decision regarding the re-rating in the near future and announce it this August,” he said.
To Abdul Latiff’s question on action taken by Malaysia to retain the country’s membership as a council member in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), Wee said CAAM has drawn up a strategy to gain support to retain the seat, ias well as hold bilateral meetings with regional groups, including the African Civil Aviation Commission.
