In late March 2014, the Ministry of Transport of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) withdrew the operating certificates for 10 airlines operating within the country. The airlines all failed the International Air Transport Association (IATA) recertification process, which had been developed and implemented with the objective of improving safety within the DRC‘s aviation industry.

The airlines failed to meet the required standards for the Document Evaluation & Demonstration and Inspection phases, which are a part of a five phase certification process.

The certification process was initiated by the Ministry of Transport to demonstrate an active approach to improving safety oversight within its area of jurisdiction.

In March 2014, a number of international airlines temporarily suspended operations to Sierra Leone’s Freetown-Lungi International Airport, after the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) noted that the airport’s only emergency response vehicle became unserviceable and required repairs.

An adequately certified emergency response vehicle has since been instated at the airport facility.

This occurrence highlights the importance of an airport’s emergency facilities and infrastructure and its potential impact on the safety of an airline’s operation to a given destination.

In mid-March 2014, a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777-200 carrying 239 occupants disappeared while en route to Beijing.

Contact with the aircraft was lost at 1:22 AM on the 8th of March 2014, when the aircraft was about to be handed off from Subang (Malaysia) Air Traffic Control (ATC) Centre to Ho Chi Minh ATC centre (Vietnam).

Subsequent attempts to contact the aircraft failed, prompting Subang ATC Centre to notify Malaysia Airlines that the aircraft was missing and could not observed on radar or contacted via radio. No distress call by the crew had been made and no emergency beacon had been activated.

Authorities in Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore subsequently initiated a search for the aircraft.
Authorities involved believe they have narrowed the location of the crash down to a section of the Indian ocean, however this still comprises over 80,000 square kilometres.

The difficulties involved in locating the aircraft are also compounded by time, as the locating beacon for the aircraft’s Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), commonly referred to as the ‘black box’, only has a limited battery life. Without the aircraft’s black box it becomes considerably more difficult for investigators to determine the possible causal factors for the accident.

It is also important to note that all theories regarding possible causal factors remain entirely speculative until the aircraft can be located and an investigation can be conducted. Until this time, the causal factors remain largely unknown.