All airline crew must get license – CAAP

MANILA, Philippines - The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has directed all airlines to require all their crew to obtain cabin crew license as an offshoot of the incident involving budget airline Cebu Air Inc. (Cebu Pacific) that veered off the runway of the Davao International Airport early June.

CAAP director general William Hotchkiss III issued a memorandum ordering all airline operators to require their crew to obtain cabin crew license pursuant to RA 9497 or the Philippine Civil Aviation Regulations (PCAR).

Hotchkiss said the order covers the issuance, renewal or reissuance of a cabin crew member license.

He pointed out that the memorandum covers all their current crew members who have completed their annual recurrent courses from January to June this year to accomplish the CAAP Flight Standards Inspectorate Service (FSIS) Form 542 together with the supporting documents and to personally submit the same to the office of the Licensing and Certification Department (LCD) for license processing.

On the other hand, newly-hired cabin crew members must submit their application documents to the Licensing and Certification Department of the FSIS together with their certificate of ground training.

Likewise, all newly-hired cabin crew members should have completed an approved training course and competency in operations and emergency procedures by qualified airline operators.

Hotchkiss said the validity period of the license is three years and would remain valid as long as the license holder maintains the required competence and has a satisfactory report of medical fitness and holder of current Class 2 medical certificate.

Last June 25, CAAP required Cebu Pacific to comply with corrective action plans after one of its aircraft veered off the runway last June 2 resulting in the two-day closure of the Davao International Airport.

The plans include the reassessment of their accountable executives and station managers, with emphasis on operation and change in corporate culture; initiation random sampling of flight crew capabilities as regards unusual situations in the flight simulator; and the apparent existence of symptomatic culture relating to the reluctance of the flight crew to initiate a go-around procedure in situation when weather is a factor, below Minimum Descent Altitude when a balked landing is called for a decision to discontinue landing or make a go-around at low altitude when safety is involved.  â€“ With Rudy Santos