In its 2013 annual report on the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) noted that of the eight critical elements laid out in the program, technical personnel qualifications and training ranked last in terms of satisfactory implementation by ICAO contracting states. The civil aviation authorities (CAAs) in a variety of countries, both developed and developing, have found that hiring, training and retaining qualified aviation safety inspectors is an ongoing challenge.1
The ineffectiveness of aviation safety oversight in some states and regions of the world has led North American and European authorities to act essentially as watchdogs of global aviation safety oversight. For instance, on Jan. 31, 2014, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), under its International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program, announced that it had downgraded India to a Category 2 rating, signifying “that India’s civi…
