The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Wednesday hit back at Ugandan aviator Captain Mike Mukula, dismissing as unfounded his claims that the body had denied him license to operate a flying school in the country.
Mukula who retired from elective politics recently, recently called a press conference and angrily lambasted the authority for frustrating Uganda’s aviation industry.
He says his own Uganda Aviation School, which he registered in 2013 and was cleared by the National Council of Higher Education (NCHE) has been denied an Operating License by CAA, without clear reasons.
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This Mukula says this is one among 14 other pilot schools that have been denied chance to start operations in Uganda.
Responding to these allegations yesterday at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala, the CAA officials stressed that an aviation being registered under NCHE is not sufficient to be granted license.
The Officials insist that Mukula’s school doesn’t meet the International aviation requirements.
According to Eng. John Kagoro Tusubira the Director Airport and Aviation Security at CAA, there are specific requirements both local and international that one needs to have in order to be given the green light in the industry.
“We have to be very careful while giving out licenses to any one because they will be handling people’s lives and property,” Tusubira told press.
“Civil Aviation is a heavily regulated industry; the safety record which the industry has compared to any other mode of transport originates from the fact that we follow regulations to the letter.
“It is our role to ensure that these guidelines are followed strictly. Africa has one of the highest rates of air accidents and that’s why we do all we can to protect our people,” he said.
No Witch-hunt
According to Mr Tusubira, Mukula has been granted Air Service Licences for his various other companies before, by CAA.
“Mike Mukula has made applications before and has continued to do so since 1992. From 1992 he has applied four times for his companies; Speed Bird, Sun Air, Air Uganda International and Uganda Aviation School.
“For Speed Bird he applied in 1992 and they were given a license and this was renewed three times up to 1995. They has two aircraft which were in the Cessna category, which were later sold.
“In July 1994, Speed Bird operated an aircraft which was registered in Kenya and it was involved in an accident in Kedepo. It was substantially damaged, although there were no fatalities.
“They replaced it with another Kenyan aircraft. This one had a fatal accident at Bayita Abababiri in August 1995 and all the six people on board died. We suspended the company, pending an investigation. The investigation found the the cause of the accident was human error and overloading.
“He then applied for Air Uganda International (2000) which was partnering with a Namibian Airline. This too was licensed. This partnership however didn’t work and the Licence was revoked.
“The 3rd company was Sun Air which he applied for in 2002 but he also failed to meet the conditions. He couldn’t prove that he had an aircraft, and that he had financial capacity. This company has reapplied three times in 2008, 2010 and 2015 but without these requirements.
“That’s when he apply for a licence this time to start an aviation school. The school did not have facilities. They claimed they were going to do the training in the East African Civil Aviation Academy in Soroti. We agreed and asked them to make an agreement with Soroti but failed to get the agreement,” he clarified.
Mr Tusubira added that when Mukula failed on this ground in October last year he shifted goals and said his school would not be training pilots by cabin crew (flight attendants) and that the requirements for this are still being pursued.