Coastal Aviation CEO speaks over recent significant accidents

Dear Colleague

As you are aware we have recently had two significant accidents, one of which resulted in the loss of life of all on board. The other accident, in October, was no less serious, but thankfully resulted in no loss of life. Two passengers and the Pilot were taken to hospital in Nairobi and subsequently released after 2 nights. I am still in touch with all involved.

Naturally all of us at Coastal are devastated and in a total state of shock. To have one major accident, after so many years of safe operations is bad, but to have another, with such a tragic outcome, so soon afterwards has left us reeling.

We have rightly been accused for poor communication to our trade partners, I put my hand up and take full responsibility for this. The lack of further communication after the October accident was down to my desire to respect the ongoing investigation and the privacy of those involved. Whilst this intention was honourable, I accept that it was not the right decision. I am having to learn fast.

The initial report from the first accident points to an attempted go around in bad weather that was left too late.

The cause of Wednesday’s tragedy is still being investigated and I do not wish to speculate as to why it happened, at this stage, in fear that I prejudice the official investigation. I will not release the passenger or pilot details yet, as the next of kin are still trying to process their loss. I am sure you will respect their privacy.

Coastal Aviation was rightly proud of our safety record, built up over 30 years. I still cannot believe that the two serious occurrences are this year. One thing I can assure you is that we are not sitting idle in trying to
a) find out what happened and
b) making the necessary steps in order to make sure that this never happens again.

What are we doing?

The first thing we are doing is appointing an external investigator to come and assess every single aspect of our business. These will include:

Flight Operations
Safety Management System
Maintenance
Training
Pilot Recruitment
Crew composition, experience and Workload
Our Management structure and effectiveness.

These investigations take time and will result in many changes and improvements, we may become a very different operation in our quest for the greatest level of safety assurance achievable. During this process we pledge to keep you, our valued partners informed at all times, as it may result in material changes in the products and services we offer.

The investigation will address the medium and long terms changes that are required.

In order to address the short term and immediate needs, I am chairing a meeting with our heads of departments tomorrow morning to make immediate changes and other short-term measures. The results of this meeting will be fully communicated with you by 09:00 EAT on Monday. Many of the changes will already be in place.

We have created a dedicated email address communication
This is to assist us in communicating with our industry partners more effectively and timeously.

Lastly, but by no means least I would like to thank the industry at large for the messages of love and support we have received, they mean a huge amount to all of us.

Your sincerely

Julian Edmunds
Managing Director