A letter sent on March 6 to PIA by the Cologne-based EASA official Wilfried Schluze stated: “On Jan 10, 2012, a PIA Boeing 777, registration No:AP-BGJ, was subjected to another Safa inspection in France which led to grounding and subsequent ferry flight to Karachi of the said aircraft." - File photo

KARACHI: The European Aviation Safety Agency has suspended PIA’s ‘maintenance organisation approval’ for its failure to meet the required standards.

As a result, sources said, the EASA in its meeting to be held in Brussels next week could ban PIA’s European operations.

The PIA has the right to appeal against the decision within two months after paying the prescribed fee.

The sources said the suspension had exposed the performance of the airline’s engineering department and would severely affect its endeavor to get maintenance business from other airlines which planned to carry out their operations in the European Union area.

While informing aviation officials about poor safety standards of the PIA, the European authorities said that its operations would not be suspended if it did not commit any more mistakes by March 12, the source said. But the airline has been caught with at least two flaws well before the date.

A letter sent on March 6 to PIA by the Cologne-based EASA official Wilfried Schluze says: “On Jan 10, 2012, a PIA Boeing 777, registration No:AP-BGJ, was subjected to another Safa inspection in France which led to grounding and subsequent ferry flight to Karachi of the said aircraft. All reported Category 3 findings of this inspection were related to maintenance issues like undetected aircraft damage and repairs performed not in accordance of approved data.

“On Feb 20, 2012, Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority presented during a hearing in front of the EU Commission in Brussels that several management positions within PIA had been reassigned in the course of 2011. Among these management changes also the chief engineer, quality assurance, has been replaced. EASA was not informed about these changes by the PIA. According to EASA records (Form 4) the position of chief engineer, quality assurance, has not changed since 2010.

“EASA has reasonable grounds to classify the current situation as a potential threat.

“As a result EASA finds that the mitigating measures put into place in May 2010 to monitor the continuation of the PIA Part 145 approval can no longer be relied on. This is underlined by further non-compliance of PIA as shown above. Ineffectiveness of monitoring by the CAA in combination with an inefficient PIA quality assurance system where there is also uncertainty about the key responsible persons is classified as a potential safety threat because such a system is unable to identify non-compliances and potential safety hazards and, therefore, cannot ensure that procedures used by PIA invoke good maintenance practices and airworthy aircraft / components.Pursuant to Article 20(2)(c) of Regulation (EC) No:216/2008 in conjunction with Paragraphs 145.B.45(a) of Annex II (Part-145) to Regulation  2042/2003, approval No: EASA.145.0004 will, therefore, be suspended.”