Iran: New Guidelines for Reducing Air Accidents

Zawya

22 August 2009

Head of Civil Aviation Organization of Iran (CAOI) Mohammad Ali
Ilkhani said on Monday new guidelines set for issuing the Air
Operators Certificate (AOC) are aimed at efficiently organizing
airlines and reducing air accidents.
Based on the guidelines, which became operational on Sunday, nobody is
allowed to bring in rental airplanes or outdated Russian airplanes to
the country. Any company operating commercial flights must obtain the
AOC, IRNA reported.
The official noted that applicants for establishing airlines should
have a detailed technical, operational and economic plan, and
determine one of the airports as the main base of the company.
"They should also at least have five airplanes, three of which should
be owned by them and none of them should be more than 10 years old,"
he said.
"The company’s organizational structure should be verified and the
company should be capable of employing personnel and paying them. Its
maintenance facilities should include facilities for storing spare
parts, repairs and ensuring a quality control system," he said.
Ilkhani said the capital asset of the company should be at least 250
billion rials.
"Initially, the certificate will be issued for six months and, if
successful, it will be renewed for a year and, if not, it will be
invalidated," he said.
The official emphasized that at no point of time have non-standard
planes entered the air fleet of the country and all airplanes have the
standards.
Commenting on the results of investigation into the crash of Caspian’s
Tupolev-154 en route from Tehran to Yerevan near Qazvin, he said, "The
second Russian delegation, which had come to Iran for this purpose,
returned to Russia and currently we are awaiting the dispatch of two
groups of Iranian experts to Russia. One group will focus on replaying
the tape of cabin’s vocal recordings and the tape of engine’s
parameters while the other group will concentrate on examining the
parts remaining from the airplane. We have reached the conclusion that
the airplane did not have any technical problems, as 20 days before
the crash it underwent a thorough technical checkup. We are examining
why the number one engine of the airplane failed."
Ilkhani noted that based on Chicago Convention, foreign airlines
cannot become active in Iranian routes.
"The presence of foreign airlines is based on the agreement we have
with their countries of origin. This means the number of flights
between the two sides should be equal. But, at present, the number of
foreign flights to Iran is higher than the number of Iranian flights
to those countries," he said.