REDAir no contaba con la debida documentación para ser certificada.
De acuerdo al informe de la NTSB, REDAir no contaba con la documentación necesaria para ser certificada.
En la entrevista que realizo la Comisión de Nacional de Seguridad de Transporte (NTSB), se dio a conocer que la compañía de capital venezolana no contaba con el certificado económico.
Además, dicha empresa aérea violo los procedimientos de seguridad, como también se redujeron los vuelos de demostración a un 20 por ciento o lo que fuera satisfactorio para el inspector del IDAC.
También, salió a relucir los otorgamientos de licencia al personal venezolano sin la debida investigación. Como también se cuestionó porque fueron dadas licencia de pilotos de líneas aéreas, solo podían dar licencia de pilotos privada.
Tanto los inspectores como el jefe de Normas de Vuelos no sabían si REDAir era una empresa dominicana o venezolana.
También, en el interrogatorio a los funcionarios del IDAC hubo muchas contradicciones, entres ellos a la hora de hablar del mantenimiento de la compañía, inclusive el inspector de mantenimiento no sabía quién era la empresa que le daba el servicio de mantenimientos a la empresa REDAir.
Are you aware, were there any difficulties in the
10 certification process of RED Air?
11 A. At RED Air, no. No, I think no, because — it’s normal
12 things. The normal thing, not a big problem.
MR. PIÑA: Is this the report or the certification? En
20 Junio, I wasn’t made — appointed, Mayo, Junio.
21 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Untranslated Spanish)
22 MR. PIÑA: I think it was in Phase 2, something like — I’m
23 not sure. But Rodolfo can give it to you exactly because he have.
24 I only have the —
1 Rodolfo can certify that.
2 MR. PIÑA: We call JEC, J-E-C, (untranslated Spanish).
3 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Chief of the certification team.
4 BY DR. WILSON:
5 Q. Do you have any direct contact with RED Air?
6 A. Excuse —
7 Q. Do you interact with RED Air?
8 A. Yes, but not too much. Only they suspend the operation when
9 the accident occur. I was suspend it until we revise to verify
10 all the procedure are there. And I request from the FAA help to
11 us and with the inspection that we did, we have the — we find
12 that almost a minor item and then we work together. I always call
13 FAA and they have to help me in any (indiscernible). But normally
14 I did it.
MR. PIÑA: They inform to us, too. Or we have a letter, they
3 have to inform any discrepancy they found outside of the Dominican
4 Republic, the DR.
Q. Okay. So is RED Air a Dominican airline?
3 A. Yes, sir.
4 Q. So it should be part of the five or no?
5 A. No. The pilot are from the Venezuela because we don’t have
6 enough pilot. Captain and the second officer, they are Dominican
7 and from Venezuela.
five.
2 Q. Okay. So is RED Air a Dominican airline?
3 A. Yes, sir.
4 Q. So it should be part of the five or no?
5 A. No. The pilot are from the Venezuela because we don’t have
6 enough pilot. Captain and the second officer, they are Dominican
7 and from Venezuela.
8 Q. Okay. But I’m talking about the airline itself, RED Air, is
9 it a Dominican —
10 A. Si, si, si. I’m sorry. I forgot to mention.
11 Q. Okay.
12 A. RED Air is a Dominican airline.
13 Q. So it’s —
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. — six?
16 A. I’m sorry. Yes.
17 Q. Six?
18 A. Yeah.
19 Q. Okay. So do you certificate LASER Air as well?
20 A. No. LASER no, because it’s —
21 Q. They’re Venezuela?
22 A. Yeah, from Venezuela. We are fly 129.
23 Q. Okay. So they’re a international carrier, too?
24 A. Yeah, international. Because we have to stay 129.
25 Q. So you have — correct me if I’m wrong, six Dominican
1 five.
2 Q. Okay. So is RED Air a Dominican airline?
3 A. Yes, sir.
4 Q. So it should be part of the five or no?
5 A. No. The pilot are from the Venezuela because we don’t have
6 enough pilot. Captain and the second officer, they are Dominican
7 and from Venezuela.
8 Q. Okay. But I’m talking about the airline itself, RED Air, is
9 it a Dominican —
10 A. Si, si, si. I’m sorry. I forgot to mention.
11 Q. Okay.
12 A. RED Air is a Dominican airline.
13 Q. So it’s —
MR. VICTORIA: So to close the phase three, we require that
13 they bring at least a document — we call it a resolution because
14 they — at that time, they don’t have the (untranslated Spanish).
15 MR. SOUFFRANT: By that time, they do not have the economical
16 clearance or authorization but they request at least –
MR. LOVELL: And inspection.
2 MR. VICTORIA: (Untranslated Spanish).
3 MR. SOUFFRANT: Phase four is a demonstration and inspector.
4 In this phase, they have to demonstrate that they can comply with
5 all the things that they wrote in the documentation. So by this
6 time, they just have a board plan, a board —
7 MR. VICTORIA: Vision.
8 MR. SOUFFRANT: — vision on the board. They have to have
9 this compiled by that time and have a sign from the IDAC that they
10 complied with this part. And now they start to comply with other
11 things that are into the operation manual, maintenance manual
12 (indiscernible).
13 MR. VICTORIA: (Untranslated Spanish).
14 MR. SOUFFRANT: For the document 8335 for the (indiscernible)
15 they made a manual — the inspector manual which is the IDAC
16 document 1000. In this manual, they have all the —
17 MR. VICTORIA: Guidance.
18 MR. SOUFFRANT: — guidance for the —
19 MR. VICTORIA: And procedures.
20 MR. SOUFFRANT: — inspectors to do all those check for the
21 demonstration process. In the case of the RED Air, they request
22 to reduce 20 percent of the demo flight that they have to do. And
23 that was (indiscernible) because all the peoples who are involved
MR. SOUFFRANT: — inspectors to do all those check for the
21 demonstration process. In the case of the RED Air, they request
22 to reduce 20 percent of the demo flight that they have to do. And
23 that was (indiscernible) because all the peoples who are involved
24 in the —
25 MR. VICTORIA: Certification.
14
FREE STATE REPORTING, INC.
Court Reporting Transcription
D.C. Area 301-261-1902
Balt. & Annap. 410-974-0947
1 MR. SOUFFRANT: — certification and in the position of the
2 — to take decisions were peoples with big background.
3 MR. VICTORIA: Previous experience.
4 MR. SOUFFRANT: With the right experience and a good
5 background. That’s why they reduce 20 percent of the demo flig
the watch timing. And they are taking all
23 the positions. They have a surprise because some door —
24 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Don’t open.
25 MR. SOUFFRANT: — do not open. So they — this is a
16
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D.C. Area 301-261-1902
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1 surprise because the people from the crew don’t know exactly which
2 door going to open and which one is not —
MR. VICTORIA: (Untranslated Spanish).
14 MR. SOUFFRANT: In the case of RED Air, they made like 10
15 demo flights and besides they request to have a 20 percent or
16 whatever lower quantity of hours for demo. They never have a time
17 limit for the process. The IDAC said that okay, we can accept
18 that but we going to make as much flight that our —
19 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible). Yep.
20 MR. SOUFFRANT: — (indiscernible) —
21 MR. VICTORIA: To make us comfortable.
22 MR. SOUFFRANT: To make us comfortable with the decision.
23 MR. VICTORIA: (Untranslated Spanish).
24 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: So basically, they don’t know the
25 number of flights that they’re going to have. The IDAC may know
MR. LOVELL: I have one more. If an operator is going to
12 start with three airplanes, how — whatever — maybe this one is
13 new. This one is five-years-old. This one is 10-years-old. How
14 in the process do you assess the airworthiness and put them on a
15 level playing field that satisfy the — that historically the
16 airplanes don’t have an issue and that they’re ready to operate
17 and that there’s no potential discrepancy in their history.
18 MR. VICTORIA: (Untranslated Spanish).
19 MR. LOVELL: So he understands my question
20 Q. To your knowledge, what is the relationship between RED Air
21 and Laser?
22 A. Oh, they’re the same — some of the owners are the same.
23 Part of the owner of RED Air are also owner of Laser.
24 Q. Laser is Venezuelan?
25 A. Venezuelan. Yeah.
1 satellite cellphone. And for that installation, we found during
2 the demo flights that the antenna did not works properly in any
3 position. That it just work in any particular position. And that
4 was briefly described in the operations manual.
5 And in that flight, I ask — okay, I want to contact
6 operations. And the guy open a little bag, took off the
7 cellphone, and the phone was turned off. So after that, they put
8 a memo instructing everybody to make sure that the phone is —
9 because if they want to call the office, they do at any moment
10 they want. But if the office wants to call them on the office —
11 and the cellphone is turned down
MR. SOUFFRANT: Because of the long time that we don’t have
11 an airline with big aircraft, we have just first officers with
12 qualifications to exercise those duties. And the captains were
13 coming from other countries with more experience and train the
14 first officers that in the future, they go on and move to the
15 captain position.
16 BY MR. CRUZ:
17 Q. Does IDAC certificate the foreign pilots with Dominican
18 numbers, certificate pilot —
No, no.
20 Q. No?
21 A. We make —
22 MR. SOUFFRANT: (Indiscernible) validation.
23 A. — (indiscernible) validation. But with a special permit to
24 work for RED Air. And in that case, for RED Air as staff member
25 of the (indiscernible) convention, we can validate every license
38
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1 of our members (audio drop). But only with private privileges to
2 work with an operator. Then the (indiscernible) validation
3 license states clearly, it’s only valid for operation with RED
4 Air.
5 Q. With RED Air. Okay.
6 A. And through that process, the licensing department first asks
7 verification from the state of the original license.
8 Q. So Venezuela. When RED Air put an application to fly into
9 Miami, was IDAC involved in getting their application approved by
10 the FAA?
11 A. Not really. As far as I know, they — as a company, they
12 deal —
13 Q. They dealt with them —
14 A. Yeah.
15 Q. — directly.
16 A. Or the Department of Transportation —
17 Q. Yeah.
18 A. — to get the 129. And they —
19 Q. So IDAC was never —
20 A. — submitted every documentation they were required fo
