DA to request full suspension of all SAFTA flights
23 August 2015
I will today write to both the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, and the Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters, to request that urgent action be taken to suspend all flights at the South African Flight Training Academy (SAFTA), where evidence is mounting of unsafe practices at the school.
I will also request that they investigate the possibility of suspending the Schools licence.
Recently, one student got lost while flying alone, and for two and a half hours she could not be found by Flight Controllers because her navigation equipment was not working. Students have also been forced to fly in unsafe aircraft against their own wishes.
After the DA brought these and other practices at the school to its attention, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) recently told the school to suspend flights, but only those for the students it is funding through the R77m Vukani project. It has also sent an assessor to the school.