Weeks after the decision by the board of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) not to renew the contract of Head of the Safety Programme Col (Ret’d) Cargill Kyte came to light, Board Chairman Javed Shadick has related that Kyte has been rehired as an Airworthiness Inspector.
In a March 10, 2022 letter addressed to Public Works Minister Juan Edghill, President of the Aircraft Owners’ Association Gerry Gouveia Jr stated that a decision by the board not to renew the contract of the Kyte has resulted in significantly delayed authorisations. It was the first time the board’s decision was made public and the GCAA, as well as the ministry, had remained silent.
Yesterday, during a brief telephone interview with Stabroek News, Shadick said that Kyte was offered a contract as an Airworthi-ness Inspector and he accepted it. He added that the board offered Kyte the post one day after his contract expired.
“[We made the offer] quite some time ago but there was a lot of negotiations in between and meetings with the Minister [Edghill] and stuff like that. When his [Kyte] contract was up, the next day I had a meeting with him and he was given the offer and he said he will have to think about it and then subsequently he met with the Minister [Edghill] and he accepted the offer,” Shadick explained.
When asked for the reasoning behind the non-renewal of Kyte’s contract as head of the Safety Programme – a post he had been serving in since 2017 – Shadick responded that the board had decided to have a number of persons perform the functions as opposed to one. However, he could not say why Kyte was not considered one of those people.
“He was the focal point for the safety programme and a decision was made by the board for that position, instead of it being one person it was spread across a multitude of persons. So instead of one person doing it, we have like about 6 people doing it now. So it addresses the safety programme better and so that position was no longer there so when the [Kyte’s] contract came up that is why I met with him.
“I told him that the position would no longer be there and if he wanted he can come back and be an Airworthiness Inspector because he was qualified as an Airworthiness Inspector and we need Airworthiness Inspectors and that is why we offered the position to him,” he related.
In its letter, the Aircraft Owners’ Association has raised concerns about the direction of the Aviation Industry’s Safety Programme, and Flight Operations, coupled with the experience and staffing of the GCAA.
“We have become aware of the fact that the contract of the Head of the Safety Programme, Col. (Ret’d) Cargill Kyte, who was the only Senior Avionics Engineer within the Authority, was not renewed contrary to the wishes of the Director-General. Col. Kyte’s departure has left the Authority unable to certify Avionics Modifications and our membership have reported significantly delayed authorizations, particularly on matters of safety, affecting their operations,” Gouveia Jr had said in his letter.
The Association had also raised concerns about the absence of the technical ability of the GCAA to effectively provide oversight to the airworthiness of the industry. Gouveia Jr also reminded that according to Guyana’s regulations of Flight Operations and Airworthiness, Inspectors must already have a sound working knowledge and experience of the country’s unique aviation environment, which was dubbed as one of the most hostile in the world.
GCAA recently appointed captains Edgar Heyligar and Davendra Singh as Flight Operations Inspectors within the Aviation Safety and Security Directorate. Heyligar was appointed on March 7, 2022 while Singh took up his post from March 14.
When questioned on the number of Airworthiness Inspectors, Shadick told Stabroek News, now that Kyte has agreed to come on board, that number has increased to seven.
“The way aviation works I am of the view that they’re always in need of Airworthiness Inspectors. That is my view and that is what the Board has been trying to do since they started working – to increase the amount of inspectors that you have.
“When we took up last year, the Airworthiness Inspectors were only three. There were five in all but two of them were not qualified because there is a special training course that has to be done and they hadn’t done it as yet. So there was only three with all the qualifications and then we caused the other two to get qualified and then another one and now Mr Kyte so we have increased the amount of Airworthiness Inspectors and it is the same thing we did for other inspectors,” he said.
When asked about the concerns raised about the Board’s interference in the hiring process of the GCAA, Shadick said he would reserve his comments on that issue since the Aircraft Owners’ Association’s letter was directed to the Minister and not the Authority.
Additionally, the AOA said that it has not yet received a response to its letter from Minister Edghill.
Last week, the Minister penned a strongly worded letter directed at the Association but that was later retracted by the Department of Public Information which promised to send an “updated” version. However, that was never done.
