Dijksma: Embargo for Dutch Civil Servants on Insel Air stands

State Secretary Sharon Dijksma wrote to Dutch Parliament that the embargo for government workers on Insel stays in place as long as long as there is no assurance as to the flight safety of Insel Air. Photo: Harald Linkels

The Hague / Kralendijk- State Secretary Sharon Dijksma of the Ministry of Infrastructure & Environment (INM) today in a letter to Dutch Parliament stated that embargo for Dutch Civil Servants (including those employed at RCN) to fly on Insel Air is maintained, as long as the flight safety on Insel Air cannot be determined with certainty.

The letter from Dijksma is the result of the inspections conducted by Dutch experts on the aviation authorities in Aruba and Curacao. Dijksma writes among other things: “The Curaçao Civil Aviation Authority (CCAA) lacks a proper legal framework. In addition, the Curaçao regulations are not in compliance with internationally prescribed standards. The CCAA (Curaçao Civil Aviation Authorities, editor) do not have enough qualified staff, inadequate structure and there is no proper control. The ILT also concludes there is insufficient independence of the CCAA with respect to Insel Air International. “Insel Air International does not meet essential elements of the aviation law, so there is too much of a security risk, “reads the letter from Dijksma.

About the situation in Aruba the Secretary of State writes: “It is remarkable that the monitoring (on Aruba) is mainly focused on inspections of daily practice – known as product inspections – and to a limited extent at the system level. Insel Air Aruba does not meet essential elements of the aviation law, so there is too high a security risk. The monitoring system of the DCA (Department of Civil Aviation, editors) was unable to prevent this”, according to Dijksma.

Dijksma earlier said that there the Inspectorate of Environment and Transport (ILT) is going to be formally involved in the recertification and thus a future decision if the grounded aircraft will be given permission to fly again.

Judging on the letter of Dijksma, the problems for Insel Air have just become much bigger than they already were. The BES-Reporter understands that Insel Air contemplated to simply re-register a number of aircraft now flying under Aruba’s P4-registration under the PJ-registration of Curaçao. It seems however, given the severity of the shortcomings found, that a simple re-registration of the aircraft -without additional measures undertaken- will not be an acceptable solution.