Wilfred Schulze, Head of Organisations Department- European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) - has invited the PIA team to EASA Head Quarters in Cologne for a meeting to reinstate the Part -145 Maintenance Organisation Approval.
PIA spokesman explained that continuity of EASA Part -145 approval was subject to regular audits by EASA or its representative auditors but EASA could not perform the surveillance audits (three audits every two years period) after November 2008 due to travel restrictions imposed by the Agency considering the regional safety issues.
Therefore, as an alternate to the physical surveillance of PIA Engineering & Maintenance, EASA opted for mitigating measures including the annual surveillance by Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) with intimation to EASA, continued monitoring by PIA Quality Assurance to ensure compliance with Part -145 standards and annual submission of monitoring/internal audit records to EASA.
This arrangement continued to satisfy the Agency till November 2011, PIA spokesman said, adding but due to certain observations of The Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft (SAFA), the EASA approval was suspended for two months. Shortly, a PIA team would be visiting EASA HQ in Cologne to satisfy the competent authority regarding the corrective action taken by PIA for EASA Part- 145 Certification.