So the Minister has dissolved the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of Sri Lanka. Will he appoint a Board of Directors soon or will it carry on like a headless chicken? The CAA was inaugurated on December 27, 2002 with much fanfare in accordance with the Civil Aviation Authority Sri Lanka Act Number 34. The following were the authority's 'powers, functions and duties':

a) Subject to any directions issued by the Minister (of Aviation), regulate civil air operations within the territory of Sri Lanka and the operation of Sri Lanka-registered aircraft outside the territory of Sri Lanka in accordance with the provision of the Act or any other written law.

b) To assist the Minister in the formation of the National Aviation Policy of Sri Lanka.

c) Prepare an Aviation Development Plan for Sri Lanka in accordance with the Aviation Policy and the directions issued by the Minister in regard to the same.

d) Provide strategic direction for the development of civil aviation and coordinate the activities of all parties involved.

e) Develop and promulgate or adopt by reference as appropriate clear and concise aviation safety requirements and practices and procedures. Implement effective enforcement strategies to secure compliance by all persons of the standards and such aviation safety requirements and practices and procedures.

f) Encourage through comprehensive and timely aviation safety advice and by fostering an awareness within the aviation community of the importance of aviation safety. A greater degree of acceptance by the aviation community of its obligation to maintain a high standard of aviation safety, provide aviation safety education and training for persons involved in civil aviation activities.

g) Issue certificates, licences, permits and any other legal authority or documentation issued by or under the provisions of this act or any other written law.

h) Initiate investigations on aircraft accidents and other related incidents and arrange for the establishment and provision of search and rescue operations; conduct inquiries with regard to any flight safety hazard and take remedial action. 

After the formation of the CAA these grandiose goals were hardly fulfilled. They did not walk the talk! The standard excuse was the ongoing conflict. Civil aviation's 'powers, functions and duties' were virtually stymied by the Sri Lanka Air Force by imposing unnecessary restrictions on civil general aviation which certainly was the pool from which the national carrier would get its quota of experienced pilots, engineers, and administrators. Today, the national carrier has to depend on expatriates.  

For many years the CAA was not able to rectify this sad situation. The new Air Navigation Act is yet to be passed. As before, this empowered the Director-General of the Civil Aviation Authority, when delegated by the Minister, to 'own' and administer the air space over Sri Lanka and thousands of square miles of the Indian Ocean. There is no National Aviation Policy. It was no surprise that the SLAF became the self-appointed policeman of the skies. To add insult to injury even the national carrier, which was supposed to be regulated by the CAA, began dictating terms to them. The CAA did not have teeth and the tail wagged the dog! The CAA Bill has yet to be passed in the Parliament.

The Last Chairman of the CAA, Air Marshal (retd) P. H. 'Paddy' Mendis was a man who had devoted a lifetime to aviation, a former Commander of the RCyAF/SLAF and, later, Chairman of Air Ceylon. In the office of his schoolmate, the then Chairman of AirLanka, Capt. Rakitha Wikremanayake, hung a poster which said it all.. 'I was born to soar with the eagles but now I am forced to work with these turkeys'. This aptly described the situation of 'Paddy' Mendis with respect to the CAA. Evidently, the CAA Chairman did not even have any executive powers. Against all odds, like Horatio, he held the bridge. The nation owes him a debt of gratitude.

There were two main reasons why experienced commercial pilots and maintenance engineers did not get involved in the CAA. The first was that the salaries offered were a literally a small fraction of what they would have earned in the national carrier. The second was that the CAA was still insisting on academic qualifications as a priority, thereby not attracting individuals with all-important knowledge and experience. The net result today is that all employees of the CAA, with one exception, have never worked with the civil airlines either in this country or abroad! They operate only with book knowledge but no practical experience. Almost all technical positions are held by former air traffic control officers (who are university graduates) and other young graduates from various related academic disciplines who, at times, operate beyond their scope of knowledge and experience, contrary to the basic requirement and spirit of Sri Lanka's Air Navigation Regulations (ANRs). One aviation wag exclaimed that the situation was like a group of doctors being managed by a bunch of nurses.

An effective Board of Directors of the CAA should have a good mix of technical and political appointees-perhaps weighted toward the technical side. For example, three political appointees and five technical appointees. The fact that the Chairman should be a former airline captain cannot be over-emphasised. The four other technical members must be a former maintenance engineer, a former air traffic control officer (ATCO), an aviation lawyer, and a civil engineer. The need for the captain, maintenance engineer, and ATCO members to be retirees is obvious. If they were practicing crew members or ATCOs, they would have to be licensed by the CAA itself, and there will be a clash of interests.

The salaries of the permanent members such as the Chairman and Director-General of Civil Aviation (CEO) must be revised to a more realistic level-say, a monthly salary of at least Rs. 1 million. Otherwise you will only get second-best, in keeping with the old adage: 'If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys'. Indeed, the structure of the CAA should be like the administration of an airliner with the captain at the helm (at the pointy end), with all the other crewmembers and departments supporting him. There is a world shortage of pilots as a large number of 'baby boomers' are retiring these days. The worldwide experience of these captains should not be allowed to go to waste. It is certainly a better option to appoint an airline captain as Chairman than have a lawyer or bean-counter versed in the ARs and FRs of the land who wouldn't know which way an aeroplane flies. The rest of the world (and the region) is passing us by while our administration is still ten years behind time.