French budget airline Aigle Azur's court administrator has received 14 expressions of interest about acquiring all or part of the ailing carrier. Aigle Azur was placed into receivership earlier this month after running out of enough liquidity to continue operations. It had started cancelling routes but subsequently admitted that its financial situation and operational problems were too great, and it suspended all flights on 7 September. Most of the proposals for Agile Azur concern purchasing "isolated assets", the administrator says, although it has received bids for more comprehensive recovery projects too. However, the administrator does not believe any of these proposals are currently viable: "Their industrial seriousness and their financing will have to be confirmed within the given deadlines." Air France-KLM said that it plans to bid for the airline in order to take control of its landing slots at Paris Orly airport. EasyJet has also expressed interest in purchasing Agile Azur's Orly operations. The administrator will now asses the offers and create a transfer plan. A further hearing of the Evry Commercial Court will take place on 16 September.

Source: FlightGlobal

AIR Namibia is experiencing a leadership vacuum after board chairperson Dee Sauls-Deckenbrock and her deputy Nangula Kauluma resigned last Thursday. Sauls-Deckenbrock is a practising lawyer with her own law firm, while Kauluma is an executive at First National Bank (FNB) Namibia. They were both appointed to the Air Namibia board of directors for a three-year term with effect from 1 January 2019. Their resignations come five months after the airline's acting managing director, Mandi Samson, relinquished the position she had held for close to five years on 15 March 2019. Works spokesperson Julius Ngweda said the ministry will be looking at filling those empty slots as a matter of emergency. “We know the situation Air Namibia is in financially, and it is not easy to sit in that chair as a managing director, a board chair or vice chairperson. Tomorrow [today], we will look into appointing someone new as a matter of an emergency,” he added. Public enterprises minister Leon Jooste yesterday said he and works minister John Mutorwa only found out about the resignations on Thursday afternoon. The resignations come at the brink of possible liquidation of Air Namibia due to the fact that the ailing parastatal has failed to make a profit since it was set up, and has relied on government bailouts amounting to N$8 billion to date. Jooste said he understands why the two – whom he described as “highly respected and busy professionals”, would not be expected to sacrifice their own businesses and careers to serve a public enterprises board. “I have complete understanding for their reasons, and I have no hard feelings at all. I honour both of them for making themselves available to serve, and they did so with supreme professionalism and dedication,” said Jooste. According to him, Air Namibia is on the agenda this week of the Cabinet committee on treasury, after which Cabinet would be approached. Ingrid Cupido, the airline's secretary, said in a statement on Friday that the resignations were due to a combination of personal reasons, and “significantly increased responsibilities in their respective professional roles”.

Source: The Namibian

South African investigators have revealed that the crew of a Convair 340 were unsure which of the aircraft's two engines had caught fire before it crashed while attempting to return to Wonderboom airport. Inquiries into the fatal accident also found that no effort was made to carry out the standard emergency procedures to deal with the fire. The aircraft (ZS-BRV) took off from Wonderboom on a scenic flight, carrying two crew and 17 passengers – one an engineer on the jump seat – on 10 July last year. Investigators found that undetected damage and substandard maintenance involving engine cylinders had resulted in a manifold pressure defect. Manifold pressure fluctuations were observed as the aircraft reached 50kt and the inquiry says the crew should have aborted the take-off. As the Convair rotated its left-hand Pratt & Whitney R-2800-CB16 radial engine caught fire. Video evidence from the cockpit shows that one of the passengers, the engineer's assistant, left their seat to inform the crew of the left-hand engine situation before returning to the cabin. But the South African Civil Aviation Authority inquiry states that, despite being told, the crew was "still not sure which engine was on fire". None of the emergency procedures, such as feathering the propeller or shutting down the engine, were followed. The cockpit video showed the left engine's rpm indicator was fluctuating, followed by illumination of the left engine's fire warning light and an aural alarm. "At no stage did the crew discuss or attempt to extinguish the fire in the left engine," the inquiry says. The extinguishing system was not activated and the engine remained operating and burning throughout the flight. The Convair had climbed to 800ft after take-off before turning right as the crew declared an emergency and sought to return to the airport. "At this stage, the crew were just observing the [engineer] who was continuously operating the engine controls and overhead panel switches," says the inquiry, citing the video evidence, despite the engineer's not being rated as a pilot on the aircraft. "Crew resource management was not observed as none of the crew attempted to use the emergency procedures checklist to respond to the [fire]." Cockpit video shows the flying pilot's wheel being deflected to the right and his indicating a loss of aileron control, after fire damage slackened aileron cables. He was also unsure as to whether the undercarriage was retracted. Loss of aileron control and height led the aircraft to strike power lines in the Derdepoort industrial area and collide with a factory building. The engineer did not survive the accident and another eight occupants were seriously injured.
Investigators determined that neither pilot had been authorised to operate a South African-registered Convair 340. Although both pilots were rated on the type, neither had secured the necessary South African regulatory validation of their foreign licences. Nor had they carried out a required competency check. They had last flown such an aircraft 17 months before the accident whereas the competency check had a 12-month limit. The aircraft was on the verge of being transferred to an aviation museum at Lelystad in the Netherlands, and had been painted in the colours of Martin's Air Charter.

Source: FlightGlobal