SPEECH BY CHIEF OF TRAINING AND PILOT SQUARE AIR LIMITED 36TH - PDF document

SPEECH BY CHIEF OF TRAINING AND PILOT SQUARE AIR LIMITED 36TH COMMAND SAFETY CONFERENCE BismillahHirRahmanir Rahim Respected Chief of the Air Staff, Chairman, Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, Principle Staff Officers, Director Flight Safety, Officers, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen present; Assalamualaikum, and a very good afternoon. I am Captain Muhammad Sohel Latif, Director, Flight Operations and Chief Pilot of Square Air Limited would like to brief you regarding the ongoing ‘Safety Practices’ and ‘Safety Related Updates’ of our company. However, in this regard, I will take approximately 04 minutes to deliver my presentation in the following sequence: # Brief history of Square Air Limited # Our various types of commitments and flying activities # Monthly/ yearly average Flying Hours generation # Our Safety Records and Safety Practices # Recent Australian Flight Safety ‘Audit Team’s inspection report # And, finally Future Plans of Square Air Limited related to various flight safety enhancement programs. Brief History of Square Air Limited With the start of Square hospital, it was felt that, there seems to be a tremendous difficulties faced by patients to get transported for medical assistances in hospitals in their extreme hours of requirement. Considering the existing and horrific road traffic condition and time consumed to reach from any remote corner of Bangladesh to any medical care center, Square hospital planned to procure a helicopter. This helicopter was planned mainly to be utilized as an Air ambulance for MEDEVAC purpose to solve this long and outstanding crisis. After a detail assessment, to resolve this crisis, a multipurpose utility helicopter was planned and procured from USA. As such, on 07 March 2010, a brand new Bell 407, manufactured in the year 2009, was brought to Bangladesh. It was then planned to be operated by Square Hospital’s Air Wing, namely, “SQUARE AIR LIMITED”. After a series of maintenance flights and approval from Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, the maiden flight was operated from HazratShahjalal International Airport on 27 April 2010. Presently, our operation is conducted by only 02 pilots, 03 Aircraft maintenance engineer and 02 Aircraft technician for 7 days in a week and 365 days in a year. However, understanding the additional future requirements, the future expansion of our Air wing is on progress, within our limited resources. Now, we are in a competitive platform to procure an additional helicopter of the same type or a different variant to share the additional workload. Our Various Types of Commitments and Flying Activities: Presently, besides, MEDICAL EVAC flight, Square Air Limited also conducting chartered flights inside the territorial boundaries of Bangladesh. Generally, after doing all necessary clearances and formalities from Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, now we can conduct any Medical Flights on the same day of urgency and usually 48 hours, for other commitment flights. Average Flying Hours Generation

Presently, with having only one air asset, in average, Square Air Limited is operating approximately 40:00 to 50:00 hours monthly and 500:00 to 600:00 hours yearly. Our Safety Records and Safety Practices Since our inception in April 2010, so far, other than maintenance and training sorties, Square Air Limited has flown a total of 264 sorties and 495:30 hours and within which, 54 sorties and 168:05 hours was flown for MEDICAL EVAC purpose and rest 210 sorties and 351:25 hours was flown for other chartered and commitment flight purpose without any major or minor incidents and accidents. In addition, in this regard, I must mention, during the month of November 2011 and February 2012, an Australia Flight safety audit team, namely, Flight Safety, Australia conducted a detail survey on our existing Flight Safety practices, records and policies. The objective of the Australian Flight Safety survey team was to find a suitable airborne platform and an operator in Bangladesh, who is compatible to provide MEDICAL EVAC support to one of their sensitive client, ‘SANTOS’, who are now providing heli copter support service to SANGU Gas Field at Chittagong. After the survey, I am proud to announce; Square Air Limited was successfully qualified and assessed as, “An ideal platform and the principle operator to provide support to their client, in future”. During the Flight Safety survey our unit’s Safety Management Manual, Operation manual including all Maintenance manuals were checked and found to be at par to contest the ISO 9001 standard. Future Plans of Square Air Limited Related To Flight Safety Our future Flight Safety plans, requirements, standards and practices are a regular and an ongoing process. We are trying our best to match all the requirements to establish our standards of the Air Wing up to a challenging level. Our future plans includes, Pilots simulator training on type at the factory level, regular aircrew and ground crew training, standardization of flying and ground training for pilots, engineers and technicians. These programs were planned to be fulfilled by conducting regular flight safety meetings, analyzing various reviews and reports of most Bell 407 helicopter operators around the world and by implement various lessons learnt. These days, we are also attending most local and international flight safety seminars, workshops and symposiums and implementing various Accident prevention Programs to enhance our Flight Safety awareness. Conclusion : So far, Square Air Limited has successfully conducted all our assigned tasks to satisfy our clients by maintaining a very high standard of Flight Safety practices, programs and records. However, we are also committed to improve ourselves with the support of various operators by sharing different ongoing Flight Safety Programs within Bangladesh and around the globe. Finally, today, I would like to conclude my short presentation on Flight Safety related matters of Square Air Limited, by expressing our heartfelt thanks to the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh for providing us supports related to our operations, Bangladesh Army Aviation, GMG Airlines and Biman Bangladesh Airlines for supporting us during our last 600:00 hours inspection of Bell 407 helicopter. Finally, I also would like to thank Bangladesh Air Force authority for providing us unconditional support related to meteorological and ATC related matters in our extreme moments of needs. Once again, I also would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Chief of the Air Staff, Bangladesh Air Force, Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Operations & Training) and Director of Flight Safety for inviting us and also for arranging such a wonderful and a flawless event and by sharing valuable Flight Safety thoughts with most local air operators.

Thank you very much all of you for your kind hearing. May God speed us all and Safety always our wingman. Allah Hafez and Assalamualaikum.