South African Civil Aviation Authority fires whistleblower after crash complaint

A whistleblower was fired by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) after raising concerns about the fatal crash of the regulator’s own aircraft and making what he says was a protected disclosure. Airworthiness inspector and former air crash investigator Jeremiah Visser was suspended soon after making the disclosure concerning the January 2020 crash of ZS-CAR, before later being dismissed following a disciplinary process. Three SACAA employers – pilot Captain Thabiso Tolo, First Officer Tebogo Lekalakala and Flight Inspector Gugu Comfort Mnguni died when their Cessna Citation S550, which belonged to SACAA and was operated by the regulator for airport calibration flights, struck mountainous terrain about 30om from the airport in George in the Western Cape.

Jeremiah Visser said he used SACAA’s internal Vuvuzela whistleblowing mechanism in March to make what he regarded as a protected disclosure based on concerns arising from his research into the crash. He said he was summoned shortly after and suspended over allegations that included acting unethically and divulging confidential information. The regulator subsequently went to court in July in an unsuccessful urgent bid to stop Viss er from publishing or sharing a manuscript he had written about the accident and its investigation.

Visser said he had spent years raising concerns about the crash before lodging the whistleblowing report in March this year. A dispute The dispute comes against the backdrop of a much longer-running controversy over the accident investigation. SACAA’s initial findings apportioned all the blame on pilot error, something the grieving families of the crew did not accept.

The family approached then transport minister Fikile Mbalula, who asked the Ethiopian Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau to to a separate investigation. The investigation had been delegated to Ethiopia because SACAA was both the regulator and the owner and operator of ZS-CAR, creating a potential conflict of interest. What the report says The Ethiopians released their report in January 2022.

Although broadly agreeing with pilot error as the probable cause, the Ethiopians also noted a number of violations of avaiation regulations by the SACAA as operator of the air craft, including a sub-standard flight date recorder. Among its recommendations was on that the investigation responsibility be separated com…