METEOR: A First Step Towards Mozambique

As part of the FEXTE Civil Aviation project in Mozambique “Certification process for the Civil Aviation Authority and airport operations and infrastructure (safety)”, the Mozambique Civil Aviation Authority (IACM) has expressed the need for shared services between the safety oversight authority and operators to:

• Manage safetyoversight activities;
• Facilitate exchanges for the planning of surveillance acts, surveillance follow-up, follow-up of findings, or any other file;
• Centralize information;
• Dematerialize and trace data and exchanges between the authority and organizations.

Coordinated by Expertise France and the DGAC’s Mission de Coopération Internationale, an exploratory mission was carried out by France Aviation Civile Services to assess the feasibility of such a service, based on METEOR, software developed and used by the DSAC and commercialized by FRACS, for the benefit of the Mozambique Civil Aviation Authority (IACM).

The exploratory mission lasted one week. Preceded by the preparation and the drafting of a questionnaire to take stock of the situation and identify IACM’s needs, it achieved its objectives in a constructive and cooperative atmosphere.

The mission’s objectives were to:

• Diagnose the organization and processes implemented by the IACM to ensure its oversight responsibilities in terms of aviation safety;
• Define a deployment strategy for such a service;
• Understand IACM’s organization and sizing in terms of surveillance, which is to be integrated into the IT platform;
• Identify the documentation and IT resources currently deployed by IACM;
• Identify the milestones required to implement the METEOR service for IACM;
• Identify the specific needs of IACM.

The interviews enabled to meet with IACM management and all the departments of the Safety Directorate, as well as with operators: airlines, airports, and air navigation services.

A number of observations have been made. Roles and responsibilities within the IACM appeared to be well defined, the regulatory structure appeared to be coherent and logical, and likely to be easily usable by METEOR service platform. All aspects of the deployment were thus considered: digitization of files, translation of the application into Portuguese, training of administrators and users, implementation schedule…. In just a few months, IACM could be fully operational using METEOR.

IACM would thus benefit from a platform enabling it to structure its safety oversight activities for Mozambican operators on a sustainable basis. This would enhance traceability and consolidate recent efforts to get off the European Safety List. What’s more, in the event of an ICAO or other audit, the use of such a platform should enable them to demonstrate the working methods in use, and to provide a tool-based response to numerous questions.

In addition to the very warm welcome, the professional exchanges were rich, and we look forward to further develop them. Finally, it was a great pleasure to get to know our Mozambican colleagues, to discover a country with which FRACS had never collaborated before, and to be able to take part in a coordinated cooperation dynamic with MCI and Expertise France, each bringing its own know-how and capacities in a complimentary way.