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Airbus is 100 percent safe: CEO Airlines

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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SolAir’s CEO Brett Gebers

BY BEN BILUA

THE Chief Executive Officer of Solomon Airlines has indicated Airbus A320 is hundred percent safe.

He made the clarification following comments raised by few leaders last week questioning the mechanical integrity of the plane.

Mr Brett Gebers said the A320 is perfectly serviceable with all the systems and every piece of equipment fitted to the aircraft working correctly.

“We will never, and have never operated the aircraft if it is not 100[percent] safe to do so.

“The aircraft is always operated in accordance with Airbus procedures and our operation complies fully with CAASI rules and the requirements of all the authorities around the world,” he explained.

Gebers told this paper that the airbus’s Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) was replaced last weekend and has been operating perfectly ever since.

He adds that the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) is a small jet engine that is situated in the tail of the aircraft and is used for starting the aircraft.

“It also provides electrical power and air conditioning on the ground and it has nothing to do with safety.

“Airbus, Boeing and Embraer procedures allow the respective aircraft to be flown with no APU.

“If the APU is not working we have to use external equipment to start the aircraft.

“Using external equipment such as the Air Start Unit (ASU) and Ground Power Unit (GPU) is inconvenient and is a slow process.

“In addition, the external equipment does not provide air-conditioning on the ground,” Gebers said.

He refutes claims that the plane has faults in its front tyre system and explained that when the tyres wear down they are replaced just as it would be done with a car.

Gebers said the tyres are replaced as soon as the thread reaches a predetermined depth and that is long before it would have been done on the average car.

He reiterated that Solomon Airlines will never allow any of its aircraft with any defect that would make them unsafe and will never do so to operate.

Gebers strongly emphasised that if the aircraft cannot be operated safely, Solomon Airlines Board will simply cancel the flight.

He said Solomon Islands Airlines Management knew very well the standard procedures and safety of its passengers and will continue to perform high standard operation to provide better services and also promote tourism industry in the country.

People safe through current weather

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

WEEKEND’S bad weather has left few houses without roofs and damaged home kitchens in Ngella, it is reported.

However, no injury has been reported.

“Through the heavy wind and rain no matter being at night time, people continue to do repairements to their homes to last through the stormy weather,” said locals.

According to reports from Central Ngella, ships docking at Honiara have travelled across to Tulaghi Harbour to keep away from the high swells of the sea including strong winds.

Many travelling Outboard Motors (OBMs) from Central Islands Province (CIP) are still stranded in Honiara because of the current weather.

From the Solomon Islands Meteorological Service weather forecast issued yesterday, all the provinces of Solomon Islands will continue to experience heavy rain showers and isolated thunderstorms today at times which may lead to localised flooding.

“People should take precautionary measures as bad weather associated with the tropical low poses threats to lives and properties,” advises the meteorological service.

“Please listen to all radio outlets for further updates.”

The situation at 11am yesterday was a tropical low with central pressure of 992 hectopascals located near 16.2 degrees latitude south and 159.6 degrees longitude east. This is located approximately 263 nautical miles south of Rennell Island.

The low was warned to be moving south/southeast at 10 knots and will slightly intensify.

Selwyn college delays start of school year

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0

BY GEORGINA KEKEA

THE bad weather condition has also delayed resumption of classes for the church-run school of Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACOM) Selwyn College located at Maravovo, West Guadalcanal.

In a notice issued to parents and guardians through a Facebook group of the Church, parents and guardians were advised to keep their children at home for the time being, due to the current weather condition.

The ACOM Education will advise when to travel to school during the coming days once the weather is fine, said the notice.

Solomon Post to involve more women in post pay initiative

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0

BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE

WE can empower women only if they have access to formal financial services.

The above statement was made by Solomon Postal Corporation’s Deputy CEO, Mr Alfred Ghemu who spoke to the paper about engaging women to become major agents for Post Pay, a new mobile wallet service that will not only boost their services but financially include all individuals.

Moreover, in having more women participate in the new digital payment system, he explained that they have already spoken with the West Are ‘Are Rokotanikeni Association (WARA) and are also currently working with SPBD to have more women get involve with the new mobile wallet service.

“Already Rokotanikeni has around 3,000 women in the rural areas. SPBD, they got 9,000 members so we are looking forward to reach more women”, he said.

On another note, Mr Ghemu stated that under their plan to bring the service to the rural areas, in two weeks’ time, their marketing team, the Our Telekom team and UK based company who introduced the mobile wallet service, Fin-Tech, will be going down to the spotted locations around the country.

He further stressed that due to insufficient staff members, they are looking at employing women and university female graduates to be part of their deployment team.

“We also want to include university female graduates as part of our team for deployment and we also want to engage women”, Mr Ghemu said.

Strong winds cause electrical black out

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

STRONG winds from the current bad weather in the country has caused electrical blackout yesterday for residents at Tulaghi’s National Fisheries Development (NFD) area.

This was after a tree was reported to have fallen on an electrical post at the Smoking Area.

Attempt to get information from the Solomon Power Office at Tulaghi was not possible but it is understood according to report that they are aware of the situation and are working on it.

From the Solomon Islands Meteorological Service weather forecast issued, People should take precautionary measures during this time as bad weather associated with the tropical low poses threats to lives and properties.

All the provinces of Solomon Islands will continue to experience heavy rain showers and isolated thunderstorms today at times which may lead to localised flooding.

Stay alert, likely a cyclone

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0

BY SAMIE WAIKORI

AS this bad weather continues the Meteorological Service is keep tracking on a tropical low situation located close to Rennell Island.

According to Solomon Island Meteorology Website, at 11:00am yesterday a tropical low with a central pressure of 992 hectopascals was located near 16.2 degrees latitude south and 159.6 degrees longitude east.

This has been located approximately 263 nautical miles south of Rennell Island.

The tropical low situation is currently moving south and southeast at 10 knots and will slightly increase.

It is also expected that the situation will continue in the next 12 to 24 hours.

Associating with the tropical low situation, gale force winds (34 to 47 knots) will develop around Rennell and Bellona Islands and expected to remain southwest of Guadalcanal and Makira provinces.

The situation will also back with rough seas and moderate swells and potential coastal flooding.

Winds is expect at 15 to 25 knots increasing to 33 knots over the remaining provinces with moderate to rough seas and moderate west to northwest swells.

Heavy rain warning number 10 issued by the office of Meteorology last night stated that heavy rain is enforced for all provinces.

Warning issued that people should take precautionary measures as bad weather associated with the tropical low poses threats to lives and properties.

People living near hill slopes, close to rivers, streams and low lying areas are therefore strongly advised to take safety measures to avoid danger and loss of lives and property.

Motorists are advised to use extreme caution when travelling on road. Mariners are also advised to take extra caution when planning or travelling out in the sea.

The Office of the Meteorological Service will keep updates on the tropical low situation and its related weather conditions.

Alcohol consumption raises concern

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

HIGH rate of alcohol consumption in Choiseul is raising concern from women and children of the province expressing the practise as a threat.

Ms Jenny Onoto the Women’s Coordinator at Christ the King Parish Voruvoru Mission Station, Northwest Choiseul, during a recent Chiefs Leadership summit workshop highlighted the concern.

She showed in her report that alcohol consumption is one of the biggest contributing factors to a lot of anti-social behaviours amongst their communities.

“Consuming alcohol at public places and family residences causes disturbances and insecurity to women and children. Continuous practise also contributes to financial problems,” said Ms Onoto.

Ms Onoto is calling on local Chiefs and the police to help decrease the rate of alcohol consumption in their area and the province as a whole.

We have gone passed the shock stage: PS Saelea

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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MAL PS Jimi Saelea opening the DAPLU conference

BY MAVIS NSIHIMURA PODOKOLO

THE shock phase of the fatal pest known as Rhinoceros Beetle has passed and now it’s time to find possible approaches to address it, says Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Mr Jimmy Saelea.

He said the dreadful pest known to be dreadful to coconut and palm oil industry was first discovered in 2015.

“When the pest was first discovered in 2015 it was firsthand and dreadful for Solomon Islands especially the coconut and palm oil industry.

“From then the country was in the dark point and it was still in the dark stage because the issue is now spreading out to the other parts of country.

“It seems that we are two and three steps back and still trying to catch up with the pest itself,” Saelea said.

He stressed that the threat of the killer pest is spreading rapidly to other parts of the country and it will be a disaster if possible approaches are not put in place to eradicate the pest.

Saelea said assistance are coming in from our neighboring countries to find ways to control it.

He strongly emphasised that cooperation from individuals, communities, NGOs and the government is important to fight against the beetle.

Airlines CEO Gebers clarifies A320 issues

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0

DEAR EDITOR, on behalf of Solomon Airlines, I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience experienced and to thank all our valued customers for their patience over the past few weeks.

As they would be aware, we recently experienced several disruptions which unfortunately occurred during one of the busiest seasons of the year.

Most of our problems were caused by the failure of the Airbus’ Auxiliary Power Unit (APU). The APU is a small jet engine usually housed in the tail of most aircraft. The APU provides electrical power and air for air-conditioning on the ground. In cases of the APU not working, all the aircraft manufacturers provide alternative procedures which allow the aircraft to continue operating safely.

These procedures require starting the aircraft using an external Air Start Unit (ASU) and a Ground Power Unit (GPU). The process is slow and cumbersome leading to late departures and unfortunately does not provide air-conditioning on the ground.

Managing disruptions over the festive season is always challenging due to the large number of passengers involved, staff being on leave and many suppliers being closed during the public holidays and this year proved particularly difficult with Christmas Day falling on a Monday and with many suppliers closed from mid-Friday until Wednesday morning.

Despite the difficult circumstances, we were able to maintain our International services, however we did experience a few delays while an alternative aircraft was sourced from Air Nauru and flown to Honiara from Brisbane.

I need to stress that in our business, safety always comes first!

Solomon Airlines has never operated any of its aircraft using procedures which are not approved by both the manufacturer and the regulating authorities.

If the aircraft cannot be operated in accordance with those procedures and regulations, we either replace the aircraft, as we did in this case, or we cancel the flight.

Domestic Services

As far as our domestic services go, we have unfortunately had to reschedule many flights over the past few months due to unserviceable equipment including weather radar, difficulty in obtaining spare parts, bad weather and heavy rains which flood runway surfaces.

Our domestic aircraft operate in harsh conditions caused primarily by the state of the runways that we operate to.

The rough surfaces of our domestic runways cause significant vibration during the landing and take-off phases of flight. This vibration is amplified in certain parts of the aircraft and often leads to the premature failure of components.

The failure of these components results in schedule disruptions as we must remove the aircraft from service to make the appropriate repairs.

We are not responsible for maintaining the runway surfaces throughout the Solomon Islands.

Because of the high costs of ongoing maintenance and cancelled or rescheduled flights, we have offered to pay for and do the required runway rehabilitation work on many occasions.

But on each occasion that we have requested permission to do this work, we have been denied the approval to do so.

In closing I would like to point out all airlines experience technical problems and disruptions to their services from time to time.

And while most have a large fleet of aircraft which allows them to minimise the effects of a disruption through rescheduling flights, we only have a small fleet of aircraft, so all delays and cancellations are immediately obvious to all concerned.

Again, we sincerely regret any inconvenience experienced by our customers but we will always cancel or reschedule a flight to ensure the safety of all concerned.

It goes without saying Solomon Airlines’ passenger and crew safety is paramount and must always come first.

Brett Gebers

CEO – Solomon Airlines

Could foreign donor aid be directed to restore Solomons’ rural health clinics?

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0

DEAR EDITOR, last week the SIG reported in a press release that the Government of Israel had offered help to the Solomon Islands in education and health.

This is a précis of what I read

“The offer came about following a meeting between the Solomon Islands Prime Minister Rick Houenipwela and the Israeli Ambassador to the Pacific Island States, Tibor Shalev Schlosser, in Honiara last week.

“The Israeli Government reportedly stands willing to help provide fully funded scholarships to undergo training in Israel.

“Israel can provide training in the areas for medical doctors, agriculture, health and also women empowerment,” Mr Schlosser said.

“The Ambassador also offered to help in the areas of climate change and health by sending doctors to Solomon Islands to assist in medical centres.”

Sending doctors to help in medical centres would be helpful, I am confident, but most, if not all, of the country’s rural medical clinics are very old, practically derelict and have ceased to function.

In his post-election pledge to the nation, the PM the Hon Rick Hou, said he would be giving priority to the restoration of rural health clinics.

The numbers of people failing to get adequate and proper medical care has reached disturbing statistics and I cite, as in the past, the situation at Tatamba in Isabel Province and at Panueli on Savo Island where upwards of 15,000 in the two communities have special difficulty in accessing their health care needs.

If foreign governments, like Israel, are charitable enough to want to help the Solomon Islands then it would be my wish that donor aid is directed to the early rehabilitation of the country’s rural health clinics and help also given to supporting the health care providers that would be needed to work from there.

Yours sincerely

FRANK SHORT

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