U.S. expert says Dominican civil aviation is growing with the strongest safety record in its history

Santo Domingo.- The aeronautical sector of the Dominican Republic is growing with the greatest operational safety support in its history, affirmed the former official of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and technical advisor of the Dominican Institute of Civil Aviation (IDAC), Javier ‘Jay’ Rodríguez.

Describing as immense the growth that the aeronautical sector has registered in the country, Rodriguez highlighted that a few years ago in the Dominican Republic there were barely a hundred people working in commercial aviation, while today an airline such as Arajet has 400 employees.

In a statement issued through the IDAC’s Public Relations Department, Rodriguez referred to the preliminary report on the accident of a Red Air airline aircraft at a Miami airport, which occurred over a year ago, and explained that the report released does not establish responsibility for the causes of the event, since it only cites information gathered during the investigations carried out.

“I have seen data from the report that the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board provided to the public and what I have seen in that report is that the conclusive causes of the accident have not yet been made known,” said the civil aviation expert.

And he considered that from his reading of the report, the accident could have been caused by a wear of parts, pointing out that it was possibly a maintenance issue and not an operational safety issue attributable to the IDAC authorities, as some insinuate.

He indicated that, from that event until today, IDAC general director Héctor Porcella has hired 6 highly experienced aviation experts and has substantially improved the operational safety levels in the institution.

“In addition, the IDAC responded appropriately, suspending the airline for 30 days, one of the highest penalties that can be applied to a company, and in this case the airline involved has cooperated extensively with the IDAC in compliance with its maintenance program obligations,” said Jay Rodriguez, who was accompanied by Hector Porcella and the director of Flight Standards, Pedro Alberto Pina de Los Santos.

On the other hand, he clarified that international aviation standards do not require their civil aviation authorities to speak a second language, although in the case of the Dominican Republic, the IDAC requires a level 4 of English for all personnel in technical areas, as recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), regardless of civil aviation standards.